PESHAWAR, March 1: Minister of State for Water and Power Amir Muqam has alleged that the opposition’s strikes are aimed diverting the attention of the masses from real issues.

Flanked by provincial PML secretary-general Mushtaq Ghani and secretary information Nighat Yasmin Orakzai, he told a news conference at the Wapda House on Wednesday that the government would not allow the opposition to harm the development process in the country.

He said strikes and demonstrations could not serve Islam.

The minister said the government would raise the issue of cartoons in the OIC and was sending delegations to European countries to register protests over the publication of blasphemous caricatures.

Mr Muqam, who also holds the portfolio of the provincial PML president, said his brother and party leader Barrister Amin Khattak had been killed, but the government could not trace the killers. He said Pakistan was among the four Islamic countries which had called their ambassadors back from Denmark.

The minister said the federal government had given Rs11 billion more to the NWFP under the NFC award this year. The Frontier province would get 50 per cent in royalty from Bhasha dam, he added.

He said the party was trying to arrange more visits of the president to the NWFP, so that the province could get more development packages and funds from the centre. About a question on Senate election, he set aside the impression of the opposition that the ruling PML had only 10 seats in the provincial assembly, saying that they had the support of the PPP-S and JUI-S.

He said the PML wanted to serve the masses while the opposition had adopted the politics of confrontation and agitation.

Mr Muqam asked the people to refrain from taking part in strikes and protest demonstrations and support President Musharraf in the larger interest of the country.