PESHAWAR, March 6: Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said that his party will stand for forging national consensus on all vital issues.

The PPP-Sherpao, like other political parties, also wanted consensus prior to the initiation of any water reservoirs in the country, he said.

Speaking at a public meeting at Charsadda, he reiterated his party's stand that since Pakistan is a federation, the government should take all the units into confidence.

He said the country needed reservoirs to avert any water crisis in future, but a national consensus was necessary on the issue.

The chief of his own faction of the PPP deplored that some political leaders were criticizing the public meeting of President General Pervez Musharraf at Nowshera only for the sake of opposition.

They were not happy with the package announced by President Musharraf for the development of Nowshera, he regretted.

Those leaders, he said, were raising hollow slogans because what their government in the NWFP had not done for the uplift of the area for three years, President Musharraf had done in a public meeting. As part of the package, their respective areas would also get Sui gas, but they did not praise even a good deed, he said.

Referring to the package, he said the previous governments had neglected Nowshera, but the president had addressed its problems largely. He said the gas supply to all villages of the district, construction of a stadium, establishment of a federal college and other plans would definitely help uplift the area.

Commenting on the statements of the People's Party Parliamentarians leaders, he said that on the one hand it had admitted to having dialogues with the government while on the other it was denying of brokering any deal with the rulers.

On the occasion, Shah Iran Bacha, member Tehsil Council Charsadda, and Gulrez Khan Naib, Nazim MC- I, joined the PPP-S. They reposed confidence in the leadership of Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and his son MPA Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao.