PESHAWAR, Feb 8: Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai has held the armed forces responsible for political instability and unrest in the country.

Speaking at a public meeting here on Friday, Mr Achakzai said that Punjab by controlling the resources of the NWFP had deprived Pakhtoons of their due rights for long.

He also said that Pakhtoons, Balochs, Sindhis and Saraekis were not encouraged to uplift themselves. They were not given power to influence internal and foreign policies, he added.

The leader suggested that a new assembly should be formed for a stable government and parliament should be an independent and supreme legislative or law-making body in the country.

Pakistan, he said, was in dire need of a true federal form of government in which power should be vested with the provinces.

He said that military and civil institutions should be answerable only to parliament. Pakhtoons, he said, wanted a separate province where they could control all their natural resources and could devise policies with the consent of the masses.