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ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: A senior leader of the ruling Muslim Conference, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, claimed on Friday that AJK President Sardar Mohammed Anwar Khan was selected for the highest office by his party under a compromise to uphold the national interest.
Talking to reporters at a news conference, he said: “I was the first choice, if the indulgence of GHQ and other players were concerned, but I preferred to give the slot to a retired armyman in the larger national interest.”
Responding to queries the MC leader said that holding meetings with army hierarchy and seeking intervention of the GHQ in the ongoing president-prime minister standoff would deliver no good to anyone.
He was unable to comprehend the purpose of the AJK president’s meeting with Barrister Sultan Mehmud Chaudhry, leader of the opposition in the AJK Legislative Assembly, at such a juncture.
About the wrangling on presidential and prime ministerial powers, he said: “These powers were clearly laid down in the 1974 Constitution, unless an amendment is approved by the two thirds majority of the Legislative Assembly and the AJK council.”
Mr Qayyum, however, stated that keeping in view the volatile border situation the issue should be resolved amicably within the party, instead of taking it to the press or seeking intervention by the government of Pakistan.
The MC leader refused to intervene when suggested that some circles were talking of the replacement of the incumbent ailing prime minister, Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, with the president of the MC, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan.
Speaking about the status of Northern Areas, Mr Qayyum admitted that the successive political and military governments had been unable to take any revolutionary decision to settle the issue, perhaps due to pressure from other players of the region.
MANGLA DAM:/President’s Kashmir Committee Chairman Sardar Qayyum said Azad Kashmir would get royalty of the Mangla Dam at the rate equivalent to what the NWFP was getting from Tarbela Dam income.
He said that notwithstanding the statement of President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the ultimate calculations will be made according to the A.G.N. Kazi formula, under which net profits share was given to Frontier.
President Musharraf had estimated the royalty of Mangla Dam at Rs700 million to Rs800 million in his speech at ground-breaking of the dam’s raising project.
Sardar Qayyum termed the project a historic event and demanded construction of 50 to 100 more small and medium dams in the state to enhance electricity generation and increase the life of Mangla Dam.
He said that if protective dams were not built upstream of Mangla, rapid silting would soon fill it and there was no capacity of its further raising.
Sardar Qayyum said all the political forces of AJK were satisfied with the steps that Wapda had taken for compensating and settling those affected by the dam’s construction and raising. “All our demands and those of the political parties of AJK were incorporated in the compensation package approved by the president,” he claimed.
