March 07, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 17, 1428

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PESHAWAR, March 6: NWFP Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Malik Zafar Azam told the provincial assembly on Monday that the abolition of deputy commissioner’s office had caused an unmanageable vacuum in the administrative system at the district level while the devolution plan had failed to deliver.

Concluding a debate in the House on the worsening law and order situation in the province, he said that in the past the deputy commissioner was at least responsible for the maintenance of law and order in his district and was answerable to the government.

However, after the enforcement of the devolution plan, none had replaced the deputy commissioner as a final authority at the district level, he added.

He said the abolition of the old administrative authority was chiefly responsible for bringing the administrative system to the verge of collapse. The devolution plan had destroyed the administrative edifice which could not be taken care of by district nazims, he added.

The minister also criticised Islamabad for what it called extending all sorts of support to the US in its fight against the Pukhtun on both sides of the divide. He said Pakistan’s logistic support to the US had shattered Afghanistan into pieces. He said the US had dropped more bombs on Afghanistan than the total number of bombs dropped during the World War II. After turning Iraq into ruins, the US was now planning to attack Iran, he said.

He said kidnappers and criminals were hiding in the tribal agencies, but the provincial home secretary could not intervene in Fata.

The provincial government, Mr Azam said, had asked the centre to send back 300 Frontier Constabulary platoons stationed at other places in the country.

He said Pakistan was held responsible for bomb blasts in Afghanistan and India, but it did not place the responsibility of bomb blasts in the NWFP on any quarter.

“We are faced with terrorism. We have called back our FC platoons,” he added.

He said instead of facilitating the US against national interests, the government policies should reflect the aspirations of the masses.

In his fiery speech, Jamaat-i-Islami provincial chief Sirajul Haq lashed out at the US and Pakistan’s armed forces for their ‘so-called’ war on terrorism. He said 35 years of military rule in the country had paved the way for lawlessness in the country. Even the president and the prime minister had been targeted by terrorists, he added.

He said superior courts and parliament had no say in the affairs and every decision was taken by the president “who considers him above the law”.

Mr Haq said Pakistan’s western borders were insecure despite the presence of 80,000 troops there.

He said due to the government censorship, media was unable to cover the happenings in Waziristan. Journalists were being killed or kidnapped to conceal truths, he added.

He alleged that the government had convened a meeting of seven Sunni states to isolate Iran. He said 160 million people of Pakistan would stand by their Iranian brothers if the US attempted to strike them.

He asked the federal government to take action against kidnappers in Fata who had so for taken away 37 people from the settled areas. It were the kidnappers – not the Taliban or Al Qaeda – who were troubling the people, he said.

Opposition leader Shahzada Gustasip Khan, Imtiaz Sultan Bukhari and Felix Innocent also spoke on the rising lawlessness in the province and suggested security measures for improvement.

The House unanimously adopted three resolutions. The first one demanded immediate halt to digging around Masjid-i-Aqsa at the hands of Israel. The movers, Sirajul Haq and Imtiaz Sultan Bukhari, held the US equally responsible for the genocide in the Middle East.

Through the second resolution, tabled by Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians and Amant Shah of the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal, the PTV and private TV channels were urged to give due coverage to the proceedings of the NWFP assembly.

Through a third resolution, Zakir Shah of the MMA demanded of the government to rename Dilazak Road as Malik Saad Road.

Saad had been killed in a bomb blast on January 27.

The House unanimously adopted all the three resolutions.