KARACHI, Feb 22: The Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party on Thursday demanded that all the federating units be provided with equal rights and control over their resources as provided in the Pakistan Resolution of 1940.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club the PMAP leaders – Abeedullah Jan Babat, Hakeem Khan Mandokhel, Abdul Rauf Khan, Abdul Raheem and others – said that all the rights guaranteed in the 1940 resolution had not been given to the smaller provinces owing to the imperialistic attitude of the biggest province and the army rulers.

They said that Pakhtoons were not being provided with their due rights and step motherly treatment was meted out to them particularly in Karachi, where over 3 million Pakhtoons lived and had played their role in the city’s progress.

They said that Pakhtoons faced problems while applying for the national identity cards, passports and licences, etc.

They also pointed that their province, Pakhtoonkhwa was divided into five parts by the British rulers and demanded that a unified Pakhtoonkhwa, from Bolan to Chitral in the areas where Pakhtoons historically lived, be formed.

They also criticised the government’s plan of fencing and land mining the Pakistan – Afghan border and termed it as a conspiracy to divide the Pakhtoon and Afghan brethren who had been living together for centuries. They also demanded that people should be taught in their mother tongue in schools.

They said that besides these issues the Pakhtoons were facing numerous problems so the PMAP had decided to organise a conference at Bacha Khan Community Hall, near Metro Cinema, on March 4 in which the chief of PONM, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, and other leaders would participate so that a joint strategy could be adopted to solve these problems.