PESHAWAR, March 7: Pakistan Muslim League workers on Wednesday held a demonstration against NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai outside the Peshawar Press Club, accusing him of sabotaging the development schemes initiated by federal Minister Amir Muqam Khan in his constituency.

Leaders of the PML labour wing and the Muslim Students’ Federation led the demonstration. The protesters, carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans against the NWFP minister, accused him of depriving local people of basic facilities on political grounds.

They demanded that the NWFP government should stop interfering in development schemes.

Earlier, speaking at a news conference at the Press Club, PML labour wing leader Arbab Akbar Hayat Khan claimed that his party had allocated substantial funds for development schemes in the provincial assembly’s constituencies PF-7, PF-8 and PF-9 of Peshawar but Mr Daudzai had been creating hurdles in the execution of the projects.

“Federal Minister Amir Muqam allocated Rs15 million for the electrification of villages in PF-7, the constituency of provincial Minister Hafiz Hashmat Khan. Similarly, the federal government has spent Rs23.7 million on providing natural gas to Muslimabad,” the PML leader pointed out.

He said Mr Muqam had allocated funds for the backward areas of the 24 districts in the province, but the chief minister had transferred all development funds to Bannu and Dir.

He said the PML had a national vision while the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal was indulging in parochial politics. He said the PML believed in federalism and unity of the people irrespective of their region and creed, while the champions of religion had promoted narrow-mindedness in the province.

Mr Hayat said he himself had spent Rs2 million for the uplift of villages in PF-8.

He said the PML would bag all the seats from Peshawar in the forthcoming elections.