PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao on Monday said the time had come to do away with the concept of security state and establish a welfare state and serve the people.

He was addressing a news conference at Watan Kor, the party’s secretariat, here, where a group of the activists of the People’s Youth Organisation led by Ahmad Iqbal announced the joining of the QWP.

The new entrants, including Ghulam Haider, Mohammad Yousaf, Said Gul, Shafi, Alamzeb and others, reposed confidence in the QWP’s leadership and promised to work for the welfare of the people.

Mr Sikandar said the people couldn’t become prosperous the way the country was being run by the ‘incompetent’ rulers.

He said his party would convene a multiparty conference next month (December) over the issues pertaining to the rights of the tribal people.

The QWP leader reiterated his party’s demand for the introduction of a new social contract in the country and said other political parties had also developed consensus over the narrative of his party on the issue.

He added that the federation should be run without the rights of the federating units being compromised.

Mr Sikandar said though the former Fata had been merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the promises made to the local people had yet to be fulfilled.

He expressed reservations about the passage of a bill from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly that declared the mines and minerals in tribal districts the property of the government.

The QWP leader said the government should have taken the people of tribal districts into confidence before introducing that bill.

“The local residents have the right of ownership to the resources in the tribal district, and the government cannot deprive them of due rights by making such controversial legislation,” he said.

Mr Sikandar said his party would stand by the residents of merged districts.

He said his party wanted all political parties to join hands and take a unified stand for the protection of the rights of merged districts as they had suffered heavily during the prolonged militancy but the government seemed reluctant to fulfil its promises for development of the neglected region.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2019