PESHAWAR: The Qaumi Watan Party is waiting for the response of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf over its 12-point draft agreement, sent to the latter, as its approval will pave the way for both the parties to become coalition partners again in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

Sources said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had already agreed to the draft. He was waiting for the final nod from the central leadership of PTI following which QWP would rejoin the government after Eidul Fitr, they added.

A senior leader of QWP said that PTI had offered two ministries -- home and irrigation -- to them in the provincial government. “QWP will join the government after Eidul Fitr because Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has already given his consent on its 12-point draft agreement,” he said.

QWP was a coalition partner of PTI in the provincial government but chief minister sacked its ministers Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussain on charges of corruption in November 2013. After which QWP provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao also resigned as senior minister from Khattak’s cabinet in protest.

The 12-point draft agreement for rejoining govt awaits final nod of PTI leadership

According to QWP leaders PTI offered the party to join the provincial government before the May 30 local government elections but it avoided taking any decision in haste and preferred to join the government under an agreement to avoid complications and misunderstandings in future.

“We have prepared a draft of an agreement and sent it to PTI so that its leadership can examine and respond to it,” QWP central general secretary Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli told Dawn on Thursday.

She said that her party wanted the agreement to be long lasting. It would require ironclad guarantee so that the previous like situation could not emerge again if they rejoined the government, she added.

Rejecting reports about QWP’s demands for different portfolios, she said that those were mere speculations but her party did not want to clarify every media report. She said that the decision about portfolios would be taken later once PTI leadership examined the draft agreement.

According to the draft agreement, QWP would like to get into an open-ended coalition with PTI that would go beyond the duration of the current term of the assemblies. It will also like PTI leadership to take it into confidence on national issues as all policies of a coalition partner affect the other.

Similarly, QWP has asked for political space to implement its own manifesto, stating that maximum autonomy should be given to its ministers to run their departments and to report all progress to chief minister through its parliamentary leaders. The draft suggests that PTI and QWP coalition government would jointly strive to introduce a comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction package for all areas that are affected by extremism and violence.

The draft says that trust fund for the victims of terrorism should be made operational as soon as possible and funded heavily by the provincial government. It states that reduction of loadshedding should be a priority of the provincial government along with lower electricity rates for some industrial units and revenue from energy resources should be made a part of formulating NFC award.

QWP suggests that the hydropower profits given to the province from the generation of electricity should be uncapped. The profit should be increased every year.

Major share of net hydro profit given to the province should become a part of the hydel fund, it says. The province should be given its share of the water resources of the country. Development of irrigation infrastructure, especially in southern part of the province, should be expedited to enhance the total irrigation area of the province.

Rest of the conditions of QWP pertains to rights of tribal people and mainstreaming of Fata, politically, constitutionally, administratively and economically. The party says that extending local government to Fata and inclusion of Fata in NFC award will be its priority.

The draft says that a Pak-Afghan trade corridor will be initiated by declaring Risalpur processing zone a pivotal site for duty-free imports to the zone and then their re-export by road to Afghanistan.

The provincial government, it suggests, must adopt a firm stand on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the government needs to properly present its case so as to protect the long term economic interests of the province and its people.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015

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