HARIPUR, Aug 5: Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan has said the government of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal is neglecting the Hazara region and diverting provincial resources to southern districts of the province.

“MMA’s government is punishing the people of Hazara for voting in favour of Pakistan Muslim League in the last election,” he said while speaking at a public meeting in village Dobandi Syedan Khanpur after inaugurating a gas supply project here on Friday night.

The project costing Rs80 million was approved during the tenure of former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. About 18 villages would benefit from the project.

Mr Khan said the NWFP government was receiving funds equal to those of other three provinces from the federal divisible pool in addition to the Tarbela royalty, but there had been no development projects in the Hazara region, particularly the Haripur district. “The province’s Annual Development Programme is a proof of this discrimination of the MMA government,” he added.

The minister said the people of Haripur district sacrificed their land for Tarbela and Khanpur dams as well as Ghazi Brotha Power Project, besides making a big contribution to the national kitty. Even then the provincial government was more interested in developing the southern districts, he alleged.

Speaking on the occasion, District Nazim Yousaf Ayub said despite the non-cooperation of the provincial government, he was making his best efforts to resolve the problems of all 45 union councils without bias.

Speaking on the current political situation in the country, Gohar Ayub Khan, former federal minister for water and power and PML’s Senior Vice President, said the opposition parties were short of numerical strength to remove the prime minister or the president.

He said the talks about the return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan were nothing but a ploy to befool their supporters.