KOHAT, Jan 27: Central President of the Awami National Party Senator Asfandyar Wali Khan said on Monday that the 17th amendment had further deepened the political crisis in the country and warned the rulers of its consequences.
Speaking at a public meeting held here in connection with the 16th death anniversary of Pukhtun nationalist leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the ANP president said like his predecessors President Pervez Musharraf had chosen a wrong path and the nation would not forgive him for trifling with democracy and the Constitution.
Strongly criticizing religious parties, he said leaders of these parties always supported dictators on one pretext or the other. He said these leaders used religion to win votes just to betray the masses in the end by siding with a military dictator to save their government in the NWFP.
He said: "The present religious leaders who have never had the taste of cavalcades and protocols are so mesmerised by the perks that they have forgotten their manifesto. They had promised to convert the governor house and the CM house into universities but now they themselves look like converts."
He said today the economic strength of any state was regarded as its real power and not the nuclear bomb. The ANP president said the issue of scientists' debriefing should be discussed in parliament so that the nation could know the real facts.
While eulogising the sacrifices made by the people of Kohat for the cause of Pukhtuns, he announced that he would field his own son to contest polls from the area in the next elections.
The meeting was also addressed by provincial senior vice-president Syed Aqil Shah, provincial information secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain, former MPA Aurangzeb Khan, district president Inayatullah Afridi, Pir Ghalib Shah and MPA Shaukat Habib.
Mian Iftikhar in his brief speech advised the federal minister for water and power not to make the long struggle for provincial autonomy a mockery. Ex-senator Syed Aqil Shah stressed for the reorganization of the party and asked the local leaders to launch a registration campaign in the region.
Former MPA Aurangzeb Khan while criticising the federal government for usurping the rights of smaller provinces said the NWFP was constantly being deprived of its share in the hydel power profit.
Giving recent figures, he said out of the Rs216 billion Wapda's annual revenue the NWFP was being paid only Rs6 billion. He said the government had failed to deliver anything to the poor people during its three-year rule and joblessness and security situation in the country had worsened. He said 4,000 doctors and 6,000 engineers were jobless alone in this province.
Later, the meeting through unanimously passed resolutions demanded appointment of a senior doctor as the medical superintendent of the KDA hospital, increase in the present strength of lady doctors in the Zanana hospital and early completion of the construction work on the Rawalpindi road.