June 9, 2003	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1424

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KOHAT, June 8: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah rushed back to Peshawar from Kohat after receiving an important call from Islamabad, following a renewed demand made by the JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for his immediate replacement on Saturday.

Sources close to the governor said that he had been asked by his bosses in Islamabad to cool down the situation because the criticism made by Maulana Fazlur Rehman could lead to a serious deadlock and render ineffective the fresh initiatives being taken to remove misunderstandings between the MMA and the federal government.

It may be mentioned here that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali met the NWFP chief minister twice on Thursday and Friday during which the latter had also set the removal of the governor as a precondition for improving the working relationship with the federal government.

The CM had asked the PM that if the Nazims had any problems they should have contacted him instead of meeting the governor.

The governor had arrived in his native town Kohat on Thursday evening to inspect the work on the tunnel and the access roads scheduled to be inaugurated by the president on June 10. He was to remain in the district till June 10.

He also cancelled his visit of the Kohat intermediate and secondary education board’s building.

It has been learnt that the JUI chief had scathingly criticized the role of the governor in the row between the provincial government and the Nazims over the issue of power-sharing, and accused him of taking sides and demanded his immediate replacement with an impartial person.