MANSEHRA: Qaumi Watan Party chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will not hold local body elections after suffering a devastating defeat in the recent by-elections.

“You should get ready for general elections in the country as the people taught a lesson to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf during the by-polls for wrong policies and high inflation,” Mr Sherpao told a public meeting here on Monday.

Former provincial minister Ibrar Hussain Tanoli announced that he had rejoined the QWP after quitting the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl.

The QWP chairman said high inflation had squeezed the people’s purchasing power drastically who were struggling to make ends meet.

He said the country was on the verge of ‘bloodshed’ due to the escalating inflation.

Flays ruling PTI over ‘wrong’ policies, high inflation

Mr Sherpao said the prices of medicines, ghee, sugar, flour and other essential items had surged significantly to the misery of the people.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan as the ruling PTI’s chairman had sacked his party’s two ministers, including Ibrar Hussain Tanoli, in 2015 through a conspiracy and continued to work in the same way even after becoming the premier and thus, putting the country on thebrink of economic devastation.

“The governments had obtained loans of around Rs25,000 billion since the creation of the country but the current incompetent government led by an incapable premier has taken the amount to Rs36,000 billion within two years of its formation,” he said.

The QWP chairman said Prime Minister Imran Khan feared that the PTI’s lawmakers would vote against his nominees in the Senate elections.

“Though the Supreme Court will decide about secret or open balloting in the Senate polls, the prime minister fears that his party’s lawmakers will go against him. This is why an ordinance by the president has been promulgated,” he said.

Mr Sherpao said the Election Commission of Pakistan presented a charge-sheet against the ruling PTI in Daska by-elections and if it (ECP) continued to expose the government’s wrongdoings, the confidence of the opposition parties would be restored in it.

Former minister Ibrar Hussain Tanoli said the QWP would regain its glory across Hazara division.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2021