PESHAWAR, Jan 5: The chairman of the Qaumi Jamhoori Party (QJP), Mohammed Asghar Khan, has opposed the provision of funds to parliamentarians for developmental schemes.

Speaking at a press conference in the provincial metropolis on Sunday, the QJP chief said that the existing local government system may collapse if the federal government did not withdraw the funds being provided to the MNAs for development schemes in their respective constituencies.

The government had recently announced that every member of the National Assembly would get an amount of one billion rupees for development activities in their constituencies.

Mr Khan alleged that Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali had sanctioned millions of rupees to the MNAs to purchase their loyalties to strengthen his coalition government in the centre.

He said that under the Constitution parliamentarians had three functions: defence, foreign policy and legislation. They (MNAs), he pointed out, had no concern with the uplift programmes. Let the MNAs fulfil their constitutional responsibilities, The QJP chief maintained.

He said that it was the local government’s mandate to carry out the development activities. The involvement of the MNAs in development sector would undermine the newly established local government system, he feared.

He said that every military dictator had promoted corruption and set illegal precedents. “I would regrettably say that Gen Pervez Musharraf is also following his predecessors,” Mr Khan said.

When asked about the bombing of Pakistani territory by the US planes, he said that people should not worry about the issue as both Islamabad and Washington had very close understanding about the war on terror.