Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister-designate Pervez Khattak Friday said his party chief
Imran Khan would contact his election campaign rival and the likely prime
minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss how to bring peace to the country and particularly
this province.
In a recent Nawaz-Imran
meeting, both had agreed to work together to pull the country out of crises. Pervez
Khattak’s revelation indicates that Imran Khan intends to sit with Nawaz Sharif
to thrash out a strategy to deal with Taliban.
“Establishing peace
tops our priority list,” he said at a news conference. He asked Taliban to give
his government a chance before being fought with, as the Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had an agenda for peace and development. “We
are not at war with Tailban,” he said the day two bombs ripped through two mosques
in Malakand Agency that killed 23 people. A day before he expressed these
remarks, the militants attacked a military convoy near the provincial capital,
killing soldiers and civilians.
“We don’t want to fight
with them (Taliban). We wish peace, and we will hold negotiations with them,”
he said. His party chief Imran Khan had promised during election campaign to
end terrorism within 90 days but now his PTI is going to form government in KP
province only and would have no control on the policies of the federal
government. It remains unclear whether the party had made any strategy to deal
with terrorism, a threat that had crippled the previous ANP government in this
province.
The news conference was
convened to tell the media that the CM-designate and PTI provincial chief Asad
Qaiser had no differences. But their body language and the words they uttered
hardly matched.
To a question about tens
of checkpoints in the city, Khattak said he would ask authorities to brief him
about the number of barricades and the terrorists and robbers arrested during
checking. “I am against these barricades, which I think are useless, as I have
suffered at the checkpoints,” he said.
PTI has made alliance
with Qaumi Watan Party and Jamaat-e-Islami and is set to form the government. Ostensibly,
all of them are concerned about the people’s plight and the challenges the
province faces. Khattak shrugged off a question about power-sharing formula.
“We have not formed coalition for ministries but for the sake of peace and
progress of the province,” he said. “The previous governments were in power
just to pass time,” said Khattak, who arrived one hour late to the press conference
on Friday and one and a half hour late on Thursday which shows how serious they
are about punctuality. “I apologise. I assure you that we will be punctual in
future,” said the embarrassed Khattak when a journalist pointed out the Friday
and Thursday late arrivals.
Yet, the claims are high.
“We will make this province a role model for others,” he said. “In this
province, there will be no place for corruption and corrupt government employees.
We will ensure merit and reform the high-handed police force,” he vowed. He
said the PTI government aimed to promote industrialisation as part of efforts
to achieve progress.
The PTI leaders also
promised early local bodies elections. The party is opposed to giving
development funds to MPAs which, it believes, is not their job. “In the local
bodies system, we will devolve powers to village level and empower citizens to
spend funds and oversee construction of schools, roads and other projects,”
Khattak said. “This will give them confidence that their money is being spent for
their welfare,” he added.
Asad Qaiser said he and
the CM-designate had no differences and would work together to solve the
complex problems that they inherited from the previous government. The
provincial president thanked people for giving them ‘clear’ mandate in
elections. “We will implement our manifesto and established an example of good
governance,” said Qaiser, who is going to retain his provincial assembly seat. “We
will pull our people out of hopelessness,” he vowed.
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