BAJAUR: The opposition Jamaat-i-Islami launched a protest movement here on Monday against corruption in government departments and bad governance.

Under the Tehreek Tahaffuz Haqooq-i-Bajaur (the movement for protection of the rights of Bajaur), demonstrations will be held in 30 areas of the district.

The party staged the first rally in Sadiqabad Bazaar, one of the largest trade centres in the district, where workers, traders and people from other walks of life showed up in large numbers.

The rally inconvenienced motorists and commuters by blocking the main Bajaur-Peshawar Road.

The protesters shouted slogans against the government over escalating inflation.

JI district head Sardar Khan, former MNA Sahibzada Haroon Rasheed, former district chief Qari Abdul Majeed, activist Hameed Sufi, trader leader Fazal Rehman, and others addressed the rally.

The speakers said that the protest movement was launched to highlight the growing corruption in government departments and its causes, and pressure the government to give due rights to Bajaur and other merged tribal districts without delay.

They demanded tangible steps for the speedy and sustainable development of tribal districts, especially through the allocation of three per cent share in the National Finance Commission Award.

The speakers called the PTI government the ‘worst and most incompetent’ in the country’s history saying it has failed on all fronts but made the people’s life miserable.

They said that the prolonged denial of due share in the NFC Award funds was unjustified, a violation of the Constitution, and a great injustice to 80 million people of the region, who lived in abject poverty, by and large.

The speakers claimed that since the PTI had formed the government, corruption and mismanagement had increased in most departments in the district.

They accused the local PTI lawmakers of promoting corruption by appointing ‘dishonest, incompetent and ineligible’ people to the government departments.

Earlier, JI district chief Sardar Khan said 30 rallies would be taken out across the district under the Tehreek Tahaffuz Haqooq-i-Bajaur.

He said the last rally would be staged outside the deputy commissioner’s office in Civil Colony, Khar, on Nov 21.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2021