NOWSHERA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has asked the people to participate in the PTI’s ‘Azadi March’ to rid the country of what he termed suppressive regime at the centre.

Addressing different public meetings at Banda Mulhan, Aman Kot, Mohib Banda and Gahri Momen here on Sunday, he said the federal government would not have faced the ‘Azadi March’ if they had accepted demand of Imran Khan regarding audit of ballots in four constituencies and bringing about electoral reforms.

Mr Khattak condemned the central and Punjab governments for using suppressive means to quell dissent and said that the Sharif brothers were the ‘remains of a dictator’. He asked the federal government to remove all the containers placed on roads to stop participants of ‘Azadi March’ from moving to Islamabad. “Prime Minister Nawaz should also order restoration of fuel supply at petrol pumps,” he demanded.

The chief minister claimed that the people of Punjab had risen against the Sharif brothers as they had come to power through bogus mandate. “A government formed through rigged elections cannot serve the people,” he said. “PML-N is an offshoot of dictatorship and thus it cannot be a democratic party.”

He said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had planned to start different developmental works across the province. The provincial government would be providing 30 per cent of its budget to local governments to help them complete their developmental projects independently at the grass roots level, he added.

The chief minister claimed that his government had implemented equal education system in the province to ensure that poor children also got quality education.

Mr Khattak said that his government had presented proposals to the federal government for launching different development projects in the province, but to no avail, adding that the federal government had not spent a single penny in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Stating that the PTI government was trying to fulfill all the election promises, he claimed that the culture of commission had been eliminated to ensure transparent use of uplift funds.

ARREST OF KILLERS DEMANDED: A Christian community member has appealed to the inspector general of police to ensure arrest of the killers of his son.

“My son was only bread winner of my family and was killed by unknown car-lifters when he resisted their attempt to snatch his cab,” said Samoail Mashi, father of the victim, Salman Samoail, while talking to mediapersons here on Sunday. He said that they had no enmity with anyone. He said that district police had failed to provide justice to his family.

When contacted, Pabbi police said they were making all out efforts to arrest the culprits.

Published in Dawn, Aug 11th, 2014