PESHAWAR, March 2: Central leader of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), and chief of Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), Mehmood Khan Achakzai, has said that he was ready for alliance with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on the constitutional issues like the Legal Framework Order.

He said that he could resign from the parliament if the MMA’s leadership wanted to do so on such issues, however, he expressed his reservations regarding alliance with the national level parties.

He said this during a press conference held here on Sunday at the Peshawar Press Club.

On this occasion, the leaders of the Awami National Party and the Pakistan Peoples Party (Sherpao), including Bashir Khan Matta and Khan Zari Afridi (ANP), and Akhundzada Abdul Manan (PPP-S) resigned from their respective parties and announced to join hands with Mr Achakzai for the rights of the Pukhtuns.

To a question regarding Pukhtun grand alliance like Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the veteran Pukhtun nationalist leader said that he could go for an alliance with the MMA on the democratic and constitutional questions and could even resign from the parliament.

Reiterating his condemnation of country’s civil and military bureaucracy, judiciary and the intelligence agencies, Mr Achakzai stressed upon the need for the supremacy of parliament and said that without this the country could not make progress.

He reiterated that Pakistan was a heterogeneous state comprising five major nationalities, i.e. Pukhtun, Baluch, Sindhi, Seraiki and Punjabi, and added that without a just distribution of the resources among these people, the problems faced by the country could not be solved.

Talking about the current national and international situation, Mr Achakzai said that the government should neither support the international terrorists nor it should give any bases to any foreign power.—PPI