PESHAWAR, Nov 27: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister Shah Farman on Wednesday said Nato supplies could not be officially blocked unless the provincial cabinet took a decision in this respect.

“Chief Minister Pervez Khattak is in Lahore and the cabinet meeting has not held, so the official proclamation to block Nato supplies could not be issued,” the minister said while replying to a question about the provincial government action as a follow-up to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s announcement.

Mr Khan reportedly announced on Tuesday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would officially block the supplies on Wednesday.

However, when a group of journalists asked about the government’s follow-up action, the information minister said the decision had to formally come from the provincial cabinet.

“There is an undisputed thinking about officially blocking the supplies, but proper processes have to be followed when it comes to taking important decisions,” he said.

Mr Farman said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had written a letter to the prime minister and informed him that the province could not take responsibility of providing security to transporters carrying Nato supplies via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He, however, the letter had not yet been replied by the prime minister.

He said holding demonstrations and staging sits-in were the people’s democratic rights and if some people had exceeded the lawful limits of holding protests, they would be proceeded against by police as per the law.

Earlier, addressing the concluding ceremony of a two days conference on “peace building through strengthening criminal justice system in conflict affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: situation analysis, policy assessment and way forward’, Mr Farman said peace could not be established without ensuring social, economic, and legal justice.

“Legal justice cannot be guaranteed without ensuring social and economic justice, first,” said the minister.

He said 70 per cent of the country’s population did not have two meals a day, while industrialists enjoyed tax exemptions as, he added, they declared themselves as having incurred losses.

Mr Farman said poor people were taking the brunt by paying indirect taxes.

“In such a situation, people take money to become suicide bombers,” he said.

The minister said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was trying to give people social and economic justice in line with its election manifesto.

“We want to empower people and hold the government accountable on daily basis,” he said.

Mr Farman said the PTI government had enacted access to information law, while work was afoot to promulgate conflict of interest law and services’ delivery law.