CHARSADDA: Spearheading the election campaign for his party, Qaumi Watan Party chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Friday promised that if voted to power, the QWP would create job opportunities for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa youth.

Addressing a gathering in Dhakki union council here, he said unemployment was rampant in KP, which lacked industries to provide job opportunities to the youth. He said people were facing poverty and lack of employment opportunities. He advised the people, particularly the youth, not to fall for catchy slogans as the ones, who ruled the province for over nine years, could not honour their pledges. He said the purchasing power of people had squeezed and they were unable to feed their children.

Talking about his party’s election manifesto, Aftab Sherpao said QWP had put together a compressive plan to boost literacy rate in KP besides providing health facilities to people from the downtrodden segments of society.

Taking a swipe at Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leadership, he said its leader stabbed his benefactors in the back and cooked up the regime change narrative after his ouster from power in a face-saving effort. Mr Sherpao said Imran Khan pushed the country to bankruptcy as he was incompetent to deliver on his so-called reform agenda.

He said KP generated cheap and surplus hydel electricity, but its people were facing power cuts and were receiving inflated bills. Aftab Sherpao said QWP would not let the people down and would come up to their expectations by honouring the pledges.

He said his party believed in serving the people without any consideration for political affiliations. He advised the voters to check the track record of candidates before casting their ballots.

Earlier, addressing another gathering in Shabqadar tehsil, he said 2018 elections were massively rigged in favour of a certain political party, but its leader did not raise any objection to it. “The one, who is now languishing in jail, did not talk about the preferential treatment, which his party enjoyed, and was brought to power through manipulation,” he maintained.

He said the one questioning the transparency of the upcoming general elections slated for February 8 should recall the massive rigging committed in the 2018 polls.

Sherpao believed PTI lost its electoral symbol ‘bat’ as the party failed to conduct the intra-party elections in accordance with its constitution, holding the PTI founding chairman responsible for the situation his party was facing.

He said the claims to rope in independent candidates for the formation of the next government amounted to insulting such contenders and this would undermine the democratic process. “The people would point the fingers at the entire electoral process and it would lose its credibility,” he remarked.

Sherpao said people were facing rising inflation coupled with inflated gas and electricity bills. He said steps should be taken to redress the grievances of people.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2024