PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party on Friday accused the federal government of ignoring constitutional rights of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and thus, causing a sense of deprivation among the people of the province.

“The ANP observes constitutional rights of the province are being violated. This has created a sense of deprivation among its people and therefore, the federal government should ensure grant of due rights to the province without delay,” said a news press issued by the party after the meeting of the provincial working committee.

According to the ANP, the committee asked the federal government to refrain from the exploitation of the province.

“Major political parties in the province, including the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Jamaat-i-Islami, have been complaining that the federal government is not resolving thorny issue of net profit on hydel power generation.

As a result, the centre has not been paying billions of rupees worth of dues to the province. The net profit on hydel power generation is a major source of income of the province,” it said.

Says response of federal, provincial govts to mass displacement very poor

The ANP said unfortunately, the response of the federal and provincial governments towards the mass displacement from the restive Fata, especially South Waziristan Agency, was very poor.

It said both federal and provincial governments paid only lip service to IDPs and didn’t take concrete steps for their welfare.

It said millions of IDPs of Fata needed medical, education, health and other basic facilities and therefore, the federal and provincial governments should fulfil their constitutional and administrative responsibilities on mass displacement.

Criticising the policies of the PTI-led coalition government in the province, the ANP said different government departments were sacking employees for one reason or the other.

“Thousands of employees have lost job over the last few months,” he said, adding that the government should abandon anti-labour policies and create excellent employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled manpower.

The ANP expressed concern over lawlessness in the province and Fata and said people were fed up with high incidence of targeted killing, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and terrorist activities.

It said the people had migrated to other parts of the countries due to the poor law and order situation in the province.

The ANP demanded security and protection of people.

It accused the provincial government of bulldozing the legislative business in the provincial assembly with a majority vote and said the approach didn’t serve the people’s interest.

“The government should respect values and traditions of parliamentary system of democracy. It should engage all stakeholders and civil society groups in the process of legislation,” he said.

The ANP said the government had planned to declare alien language the medium of instruction in schools.

“International law and conventions recommend provision of education to children in mother tongues and therefore, the government should take steps for the promotion of regional languages at schools and colleges,” he said.

The ANP also complained about the proposed increase in power tariffs and gas price.

He also said the government should explore oil and gas reserves of oil and gas in the province and decrease the duration of loadshedding.

Published in Dawn, November 22th , 2014