MANSEHRA: Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaisar on Saturday said the provincial government would ensure dispensation of justice to the Abbottabad family in the girl burning case.

He also said neither any local jirga nor influential persons would be allowed to be a hurdle to it.

Members of a 15-strong jirga are suspected of strangling the 16-year-old girl before setting her body on fire in Galyat’s Makol village last month.

One suspect is at large.

PA speaker says influential persons won’t be allowed to influence case

The girl was accused of helping her friend elope with boyfriend.

“I’ll appear before the court on the first hearing into the girl burning case. At the same time, we’ll allow the so-called jirga that is behind the gruesome crime to play any dirty game,” the speaker told a public meeting here.

Mr. Qaisar said in the past, the relevant families were denied justice in such cases.

He said he and his party (PTI) stood by the burnt girl’s family and would ensure that they get justice.

The speaker also said he would appeal to local elders not to hold jirgas to influence the aggrieved family from pleading the case.

“We’ll not allow anyone to pressure the girl’s family for out-of-court settlement,” he said.

Mr. Qaisar said his government favoured the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project as it would ensure economic prosperity in Hazara division.

He, however, said the federal government should give all due benefits to the mega project to people of Hazara.

The speaker said his party was not opposed to the development and prosperity of Punjab through the CPEC and instead it wanted similar benefits for KP.

He said the federal government was to blame for delay in the completion of the New Balakot housing project and therefore, it should fulfil its responsibilities to ensure its early execution.

Political coordinator to the CM Zargul Khan, who was also in attendance, said if the federal government didn’t give due rights to the people of KP in the CPEC project, the people of Hazara won’t allow it to execute work on it.

PTI organiser Babar Saleem Swati complained the provincial government didn’t give due attention to prosperity and development of Hazara division, especially that of Mansehra.

He said the local bureaucracy was much under the influence of local PML-N lawmakers and therefore, the PTI government should launch development projects in the region to counter political rivals.

District councillor Ambreen Swati said though the government had held local body elections in the province, powers had yet to be devolved to them.

“We are being discriminated against in the LG system. Development funds are denied to us for the schemes for the welfare of womenfolk,” she said.

Another councillor, Undlus Bibi, staged a walkout alleging that the PTI was not giving women’s elected representatives the due rights and even respect.

“I asked organisers of the public meeting to allow me to take up the issues faced by women councillors but they declined,” she said.

The party workers later convinced her to return.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2016