PESHAWAR: Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party leaders have demanded holding of fresh general elections to ‘help restore civilian supremacy and strengthen democracy in the country’.

They made the demand while speaking at a ceremony held in connection with the 46th death anniversary of Khan Shaheed Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai here on Sunday.

The event was organised by the district chapter of PkMAP at Achini. The party’s central executive member Mir Alam Shah Lala was the chief guest.

PkMAP workers from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the ceremony to pay tributes to their martyred leader.

Prominent among the speakers were Arshad Khan, Mir Kalam Wazir Advocate, Malik Shaukat Advocate, Haji Wali Gul, Rafiullah Khattak, Haji Inamullah, Amir Jan Shirani and Nazeef Lala.

The speakers stressed the need that Pakhtuns should be given control over their natural resources in order to remove the prevailing sense of deprivation among them.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the performance of the government the speakers asked for conduct of fresh polls to delegate powers to the ‘real representatives’ of the people. They said the soil of Pakhtuns was rich and replete with natural resources, but they had no control over their own resources.

Besides, they criticised the provincial government for passage of a bill to declare all the natural resources of the Pakhtuns as the state property.

It is the legitimate right of Pakhtuns to have control over their natural resources but the rulers are bent upon usurping their right with flawed legislation, they declared.

The speakers said the anti-government movement spearheaded by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman would continue in phases till its logical end, adding that the opposition parties would render every kind of sacrifice for civilian supremacy in the country.

Paying rich tributes to Abdul Samad Achakzai, they said he had spent more than half of his life in prison during British rule and after partition of Indian subcontinent to get rights for the Pakhtuns.

They said Abdul Samad Achakzai was a great leader, who rendered the sacrifice of his life for the sake of his people and motherland. They said he was not only a great freedom fighter and political leader but also an educationist, linguist, translator, historian, social reformer and religious scholar.

The speakers pledged to continue the struggle of Abdul Samad Achakzai under the leadership of PkMAP chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2019