PESHAWAR, Dec 1: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on Friday said that the federal government was blocking the enforcement of the Hasba Bill which had been adopted by the provincial assembly.

Mr Durrani claimed that the NWFP government had done everything to enforce Shariah in the province but the federal government was blocking its way.

He urged the people of Punjab to follow in the footsteps of the people of the Frontier province and vote for the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal so that Shariah could be enforced all over the country.

According to a handout issued here on Friday, the chief minister was addressing a conference on the Nifaz-i-Shariah in Bhakkar in Punjab on Friday.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri also addressed the conference.

NWFP chief minister highlighted various steps, including introduction of interest-free banking, reforms in police and education, imposition of ban on sale of liquor.

Mr Durrani said that the government would soon build a road between Dera Ismail Khan and Kotla Jam.

DISABLED PERSONS: The Special Persons Developing Association, an NGO, staged a demonstration here on Friday to protest against what it called apathy of the federal and provincial governments towards special persons. The protest was held outside the press club.

They criticised the government for not observing International Disabled Persons Day this year. Some of the boys, sitting in wheelchairs, urged the minister of zakat and social welfare to set up his office on the ground floor of the civil secretariat. They said: "We cannot go upstairs and the minister finds it distasteful to meeti people visiting the floor below." SPDA president Malik Moezullah accused the government of making tall claims but doing nothing in real.

He said: "We had pointed out some glaring mistakes in the disabled certificate about three years ago, but the government had not removed them.”