MINGORA: Awami National Party provincial president Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Sunday censured the PTI chief Imran Khan for ‘claiming credit’ for the projects launched by the ANP-led government.

He was addressing a workers convention in Baghdherai here.

Mr Hoti said following the tradition of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Imran Khan was also claiming credit for the projects initiated by the ANP government.

“The 84MW Gorkin-Matiltan hydropower project was originally our project which was inaugurated by me five years back during ANP’s rule,” he said, and added that Imran Khan laid foundation stone of the project, which reflected poorly on his party’s performance in KP.

He said ANP leadership and workers shed their blood for establishing peace in Swat.

Mr Hoti alleged that the PTI-led government had even suspended 24 mega projects approved and initiated by ANP. He said PTI was awarding contracts to multinational companies which meant the money would go out of the province.

While addressing Imran Khan in Urdu to help the PTI chief better understand his speech, Mr Hoti criticised the provincial government for failing to address public problems. “The PTI government is marred by mismanagement, and those who claimed to eliminate corruption from the province immediately after coming into power have failed to do so even in four years. The irony is that PTI’s own people have been blaming the leadership for corruption,” said Mr Hoti.

He said Imran Khan was focusing on Punjab at the cost of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and added that Imran favoured the interests of Punjab, and never uttered a word for rights of Pakhtuns in the CPEC. He claimed that the ANP was the only party which had taken a clear stance on the CPEC.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2016