QUETTA, Nov 25: The Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party said on Thursday that it would launch a civil disobedience movement if the rulers did not take steps to provide funds for the rehabilitation of people affected by drought.

Pukhtun Qaumi Ulasi Jirga chief Senator Nawab Ayaz Khan Jogezai said at a protest meeting at Sanatan Chowk in Chaman that the long drought spell had severely affected the northern districts of the province but the government's response was lukewarm.

He said thousands of orchards had been destroyed, 1,205 tube-wells and about 500 water channels dried up and millions of cattle head left dead because of the drought. He said farmers had suffered losses of billions of rupees and thousands of families had migrated from their home districts but they were facing problems in finding jobs.

He said the government had failed to formulate mid-term and long-term policy to ameliorate the situation. He said the PMAP had decided to launch peaceful protest to draw the government's attention towards the issue.

Nawab Jogezai said that in the second phase of protest the party would call strikes and, as a last resort, it would launch a civil disobedience movement if the government did not solve the problems of the victims.

He said the party had apprised the parliamentary sub-committee on Balochistan about the drought, large projects in Baloch areas, merger of levies into police and excesses of the Frontier Corps. He said the Pukhtuns should be granted equal rights in all the fields in Balochistan till the provinces were re-demarcated.