PESHAWAR, May 22: MPA Sikandar Hayat Sherpao of the Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao) on Sunday demanded that the federal government should announce a special package for the NWFP in the budget as the province had been adversely affected by the Afghan situation and influx of refugees.

He said, in a statement, that the province had been hosting more than three million refugees for 25 years, which had affected its infrastructure and created social and economic problems.

He said that the country’s recent role as a frontline state in the war on terrorism had badly affected living conditions in the province.

He held the provincial government’s policies responsible for increasing poverty.

He said that instead of safeguarding the rights of the province and its people, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leadership had wasted two years in protests for its political agenda and consolidating its grip on power. The alliance had ignored the province’s difficulties, he said.

He said the MMA government had failed to achieve the province’s rights.

He said the provincial government had concentrated on a few districts, which had created a sense of deprivation among the people of other areas in the NWFP.

He said the law and order situation in the province was deplorable.

He said unemployment and poverty had increased due to discriminatory policies of the provincial government.

He urged the federal government to announce a special incentives package for the province in the budget to allay the sense of deprivation among its people.