PESHAWAR, June 29: The Awami National Party has said that the damage caused by the recent flood in the NWFP has proved that the Kalabagh dam will be harmful for the province. “We demand that the worst-hit districts of Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsadda be declared calamity-hit and residents of these districts be exempted from abiana and other taxes,” ANP’s senior vice-president Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said at a news conference on Wednesday.

He said that flood-affected people were in need of assistance but the government was doing nothing to rehabilitate the displaced families.

Accompanied by Afrasiab Khattak, Mian Iftikhar Hussain and Bashir Ahmad Bilour, he said the official announcements about relief for the affected people were insignificant.

“Recent flood has made it abundantly clear that after the construction of the Kalabagh Dam, Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsadda would be completely submerge in water,” he said, adding that three provincial assemblies had already rejected the project through unanimous resolutions.

“NWFP is at the top as far as poverty is concerned, because 80 per cent of its industrial units are closed,” the ANP leader said. The growing price-hike has broken the back of the masses, he said.

Criticizing the government of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in the province, he said the alliance had deceived people by supporting the 17 Amendment Bill which had strengthened the role of the army in politics. He regretted that the widespread corruption had played havoc with the country’s economy.

He called upon the government to allow former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to return home. He said the ANP would join hands with other political parties, including the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement, in their struggle for the restoration of democracy in the country.

“Without genuine political parties, the extremist forces would get strengthened,” Mr Bilour warned and said that better relations with neighbouring countries could be established through a liberal foreign policy.

He criticized the recent increase in the defence budget and demanded provincial autonomy.