MARDAN, Oct 21: Interior Minister and president of his own faction of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, has expressed surprise over MMA's demand that President Pervez Musharraf must shed his uniform by Dec 31, saying the issue had been settled through the 17th Amendment. He recalled that they had earlier supported General Ziaul Haque while he was in uniform.
Talking to reporters at the residence of Iqbal Khan Hoti advocate, the provincial chief of People's Lawyers Forum, where he had gone to offer condolences on the death of Mr Hoti's son, Mr Sherpao criticized the opposition for making the uniform a major issue.
He warned that if the present democratic system was derailed, the country would plunge into a quagmire. Therefore, the opposition should abandon its politics of stubbornness and agitation, and confine itself to the assemblies, he advised.
He stressed that both the present system and the obtaining situation in the region required that President Musharraf continued to hold the two offices beyond Dec 31.
Mr Sherpao dispelled the impression that the federal government was hatching conspiracies against the MMA government in the Frontier, saying their own members were causing sufficient damage to their reputation.
FUND USE: The nazims and members of the district council Mardan discussed the annual budget of 'Maintenance and Roads' and decided that the fund should be spent on schemes that required urgent attention. The session was presided over by Iqbal Khan advocate.
The meeting, held to take up a seven-point agenda, could only cover one point. It decided that works in various areas of the district, which were of an urgent nature, would get the funding.
At present, Rs5.6 fund is lying with the M&R. The session decided that Rs2.8 million would be placed at the disposal of buildings department while the rest would be diverted to works about which a consensus was developed among nazims and members.
QUL HELD: The Qul of Naveed Iqbal, the son of Iqbal Khan Hoti advocate, was held here at his residence and a large number of area notables attended it. The boy, a 2nd year student of British College in Peshawar, had died on Tuesday in an accident.