May 26, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 09, 1428

HARIPUR, May 25: MPA Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan on Friday resigned from the provincial vice-presidency of the PML-Q and decided to boycott Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s function to be held on Saturday (today).

At a news conference attended by district president of PML-Q Seth Khalid Mehmood, Muslim Students Federation (MSF) president Amer Khan and his supporters, the PML-Q leader said that his decision was a result of “being ignored” by his party.

Recalling that he contested on a PML-Q ticket in the last general elections and defeated PML-N candidate Yousaf Ayub Khan (currently Haripur’s district nazim), Qazi Khan pointed out that he had struggled to strengthen his party at the grass-roots level. Yet, he said, “the party failed to give my due share from development funds.”

During 2006, Qazi Khan was given a development package worth Rs10 million of which only 40 per cent has reportedly been spent. The remaining 60 per cent is due to lapse at the end of June. Qazi Khan said that this was because of his party’s lack of interest in development activities in his constituency.

Referring to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s scheduled visit to his district, the PML-Q leader complained that he was kept out of the loop by his party and by MNA Omar Ayub Khan. He said that he was invited to the function by his opponent Yousaf Ayub Khan from the PML-N, which he termed “humiliating.”