MUZAFFARABAD: A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader on Wednesday slated AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq for paying short visits to Muzaffarabad over the past 10 months of his rule, alleging that he had literally moved the state capital to Islamabad.

“With the virtual shifting of state administrative machinery to Islamabad since the inception of Anwar government in April last year, people visiting the capital from different parts of the state for redress of their problems feel frustrated of the highest degree.

However, neither the government nor its backers are concerned about this pitiful situation,“ said Raja Farrukh Mumtaz, PTI’s deputy secretary information, in a statement.

“In effect, there is no such thing as a government in the state.

By retaining all the powers with himself, the prime minister assumes and professes that he is running the affairs of the state in a better manner, but in reality the whole system has crippled, rendering not only the people but some coalition partners also deeply disappointed,“ he added.

Mr Mumtaz alleged that Mr Haq who had grabbed the office of the prime minister in the dead of night after stabbing in the back of the party that brought him to the house after a gap of almost one decade, had no knowledge of the problems and functioning of different organs of the state.

“Nevertheless, he boasts about the so-called good governance day in and day out to throw dust in the eyes of the people and institutions.”

The PTI leader regretted that while AJK people had been deprived of treatment facilities following the failure of the government to

back health cards, infrastructural developmental activities had also come to a grinding halt after the installation of the coalition government.

He pointed out that in almost all parts of AJK, people had been on protest for the past several months for wheat flour, cheap and uninterrupted electricity and some other demands, but the government had turned a blind eye towards it and was enjoying the comforts of life in Islamabad.

“By sitting in Islamabad for about nine out of 10 months, Chaudhry Anwarul Haq is trying to prove that there is no need for administrative setup in the liberated territory and anyone can run its affairs from any building in Islamabad,” he said.

“It is an atrocity against the state which every son of the soil, regardless of his political affiliation, should take note of.”

Mr Mumtaz claimed that PTI’s sitting regional president Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi had proved that PTI was the real people-friendly party because as prime minister he had opened the doors of his offices for the general public.

“Contrarily the sitting premier avoids public contact for reasons best known to him.”

He asserted that shortly the PTI would regain its stolen mandate and restore the stalled developmental activities for the welfare of the people in accordance with the vision of its founder chairman Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2024