PESHAWAR, Nov 30: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani said on Sunday his government had been the victim of a vicious propaganda and accused vested interests of having launched a smear campaign to discredit his achievements.
“We are the victims of a vicious propaganda. We were labelled as Taliban and called illiterate and ignorant. We continued to remind that we are democratic people who believe in democracy and were elected through a democratic process, but nothing worked to change the perception,” he lamented while speaking to newsmen.
Mr Durrani stated that small incidents were blown up out of all proportion to malign his government. “Minor incidents were made to look as if the Frontier province was hit by a tornado,” he remarked.
The NWFP government had taken strong action against those involved in tearing down billboards in Peshawar and suspended the police officials concerned for their delinquency. “I personally apologized for the incidents at the floor of the provincial assembly and assured to compensate for the damages to private property. But none of these actions got the attention of international media.”
The chief minister denied that his government was following the Taliban model. “We are not following anybody,” he insisted.
He said he was striving to introduce a system based on Islamic principles which could also serve as a model for others to follow and added that Islam guarantees rights to all including religious minorities.
The chief minister assured that steps to introduce Shariat in the province would be gradual and in consultation with people from all walks of life.
He reminded that the Shariat bill was introduced in the provincial assembly in a democratic manner and passed unanimously. He said his government would try and introduce Shariat while keeping within the confines of constitutional powers.
On the Legal Framework Order, the chief minister said the MMA believed in strengthening democracy and democratic institutions. Therefore its leadership was trying to resolve the issue through dialogue, he added.
He scoffed at critics for branding the MMA as an alliance of hard-line extremists and said MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman had gone to India with a message of peace. “It proves that we have a message of peace for the whole world.”
The chief minister assured that his government would introduce the controversial Hisba bill in the NWFP assembly and get it passed with the same spirit. The provincial government had allayed all prevailing apprehensions against the proposed law, he said.
He said the office of ombudsman to be created under the proposed law would play a mediatory and conciliatory role and help lessen burden and workload on judiciary.
About the operation against the suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda elements in the tribal areas, the chief minister said tribesmen were patriotic Pakistanis who were opposed to interference in their affairs and warned that any attempt at snatching their rights and autonomy could lead to rebellion.
Without naming the United States, the chief minister said powerful nations of the world should try and resolve issues through negotiations instead of using force, and maintained that Washington should review its policies on Muslims countries.
Regarding the provincial financial health, the chief minister informed that the payment of Rs1.5 billion to the NWFP by Wapda on account of net profit from hydel power generation had improved the situation.
He said 90 per cent of the NWFP budget depended on federal receipts including taxes and net profits. Though the payment of net profits had been erratic and irregular, the situation had improved a bit, he said.
The provincial government wanted the payments to be made on a monthly basis, he said and added that his government had constituted a jirga of political parties to persuade the federal government to make full payment of Rs17 billion of the net profits along with past arrears of billions of rupees.
He expressed the hope that the next meeting of the National Finance Commission would bring a good news for the Frontier province.