GILGIT: An all parities’ conference held here on Sunday decided to launch a protest campaign against non-implementation of demands for launching probe by NAB into the alleged corruption committed during the tenure of PPP-led government, and for ending excessive loadshedding in the region.

The APC was organised by the Awami Action Committee (AAC), an alliance of 12 religio-political and nationalist parties of the region.

The participants said that after consultations the date and strategy of the protest movement would be announced within a week.

Speaking on the occasion, AAC chairman Ehasan Ali said that the federal and regional governments had failed to implement their nine-point charter of demands.

He said that power loadshedding had reached 22 hours in the region, adding that mismanagement and massive corruption in power projects by the former GB chief minister Syed Mehdi Shah, his cabinet members and government officials, had caused the menacing outages.

The APC also issued a joint statement after the meeting, demanding of the federal government to withdraw all the taxes imposed on the people of GB, including income tax and customs tax. It also demanded immediate cancellation of mineral licences given to non-local companies, and payment of compensation to the affected people of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, and the KKH expansion project.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2014