Awami National Party provincial president Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Wednesday said his party would not accept division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the name of creating new provinces.
\nAddressing a press conference at the end of three-day meetings of the provincial cabinet, working committee and council, he said Pakhtunkhwa was ANP\u2019s land, identity and historical heritage, and any attempt to damage its geographic, political and historical character would be resisted.
\nHe said no conspiracy to occupy KP\u2019s resources and mineral wealth in the name of new provinces would be allowed to succeed. If new provinces were to be created, they should be on the basis of nationalities, he added.
\nMr Hussain said terrorism was not a product of any province or language but a national issue. He said people of KP had rendered the most sacrifices, with over 1,300 ANP workers and leaders targeted. Blaming KP\u2019s people while sitting in Punjab was unjust, he said, adding that causes, facilitators and networks behind terrorism should be examined.
\nHe said the federal and provincial governments should stop shifting responsibility and take serious steps for public security. Establishing peace was a constitutional duty, not a favour, he said.
\nThe ANP leader said KP could not be seen only through a security lens. He demanded full implementation of the National Action Plan and steps to address poverty, unemployment and lack of education.
\nHe said ANP would not accept any armed lashkar, private force or militia in the name of peace. Arming civilians against terrorists was no solution, he added.
\nHe said the solution to current crises lay in supremacy of the Constitution, parliament and all institutions staying within constitutional limits. He said there would be no compromise on the 18th Amendment, provincial autonomy and NFC Award, and demanded immediate announcement of a new NFC Award.
\nHe said promises made to merged districts under the 25th Amendment must be fulfilled and infrastructure rehabilitated.
\nMr Hussain said KP was facing a severe financial crisis while the provincial government\u2019s priority was release of one prisoner. He said universities were unable to even pay salaries and demanded an emergency package.
\nHe also demanded an end to hurdles in wheat and flour supply from Punjab, saying Article 151 did not allow inter-provincial trade barriers.
\nHe said tobacco should be declared a formal crop and farmers ensured fair prices.
\nHe demanded payment of net hydel profit and gas dues to KP and opening of border trade routes with Afghanistan through diplomacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Awami National Party provincial president Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Wednesday said his party would not accept division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the name of creating new provinces. Addressing a press conference at the end of three-day meetings of the provincial cabinet, working committee and council, he said Pakhtunkhwa was ANP\u2019s land, identity and historical heritage, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":103384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103385,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103374\/revisions\/103385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}