Stability, autonomy interlinked: Bilour - MQM's stand on Pukhtunkhwa welcomed
By Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Sept 9: Awami National Party's senior vice-president Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour on Wednesday said that political stability would continue to elude the country until provinces enjoyed 'full' autonomy.
Speaking at the Mulaqaat programme of the Khyber Union of Journalists, he said provinces should be given complete control over their resources to remove the prevailing sense of deprivation among them.
"We know the establishment will not accept this demand but without this the solidarity of the country will be at stake," he warned. Electricity, forest, health and other sectors were provincial subjects before the formation of the One Unit but these were not returned to provinces when One Unit was abolished and provinces were restored, he pointed out.
Mr Bilour said it was the ANP that had first raised its voice against the One Unit. He said the ANP leaders had always called for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue but they were called traitors and foreign agents by the establishment.
He said that same was the case with Afghanistan, reiterating his party's stand that it was a war of interests between the then USSR and America but everyone in the ruling clique considered Afghanistan a province of Pakistan.
Now, he maintained, neither the president nor the prime minister or corps commanders were safe in the country as they were being attacked by the same elements whom they had harboured in the past.
The ANP leader condemned the army action against what he called the 'innocent' people of Wana. He said it was strange that poor and unarmed tribesmen were expected to capture militants when the army itself could not do the job.
Mr Bilour demanded an immediate end to the operation and lifting of economic ban on tribesmen. He said Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain's statement in favour of Pukhtunkhwa was a positive development as the establishment had always pitched Pukhtuns against Mohajirs in Karachi.
Mr Bilour said the ANP was ready to join the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy if its leadership gave an assurance that they would give autonomy to provinces.
