PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Friday announced that he along with his cabinet members and MPAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf would lead a march on the Wapda House in the provincial capital on next Wednesday.
During a news conference here, the chief minister criticised Wapda for unscheduled loadshedding in the province and said the people should participate in the July 16 march in large numbers to make it a success.
“I will lead the march from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to the Wapda House, while members of my cabinet and MPAs will accompany me,” he said.
Also see: 14 hours of loadshedding
When asked if he is not inciting the people to revolt, the chief minister said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, too, had led many rallies against the previous federal government but Article 6 of the Constitution was not invoked against him.
Says authority unfair to KP though it produces surplus electricity
He said he would protest against Wapda and not the federal government.
Pervez Khattak said Wapda was unfair to the local residents though the province generated surplus electricity.
He said Wapda supplied only 1200MW electricity to the province, whose total demand was 2400MW.
The chief minister complained that Wapda was not sharing loadshedding schedule with the provincial government.
“The people blame the excessive power outages on us (provincial government). They should understand the provincial government has nothing to do with the electric supply,” he said.
Pervez Khattak also came down heavily on the federal government for ignoring the core issues of the province.
Also read: People block road in Kohat against loadshedding
He complained about serious shortage of senior officers in the bureaucracy and police force and asked the centre to declare the province a ‘hard area’ and exempt the province from taxes as ‘there’s a war-like situation.’“I have requested the federal government time and again to transfer senior bureaucrats and police officials, but to no avail,” he said, adding that unqualified officers had been appointed to the top positions due to that shortage.
“This attitude shows the federal government has no sympathy for the province,” he said.
The chief minister said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had 100 million cubic feet surplus gas and his government had planned to generate 400MW electricity from gas but the project couldn’t be executed due to the lukewarm response of the centre.
He said the proposed project was very vital for the economic prosperity of the province and that the government would provide cheap electricity to industrial units.
“The federal government considers Punjab the whole Pakistan ignoring small provinces,” he said.
Pervez Khattak said the net hydel profit issue with Wapda had not been resolved, while profit had been capped at Rs6 billion, which, too, was released in installments.
He said Sindh and Punjab were utilising Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s share of water without paying a single penny.
The chief minister said his government had delivered the goods during the last one year by introducing legal and administrative reforms in all its departments.
He said the new mineral and environment policies had been unveiled, while the energy policy would be made public very soon.
Pervez Khattak said the government would take action against illegal woodcutters and timber smugglers to preserve forests in the province.
He said the Ehtesab Commission would be functional within a month.
The chief minister expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the health department, saying health facilities were a shamble across the province.
He said there was a shortage of doctors and other facilities in main hospitals of the province.
Pervez Khattak said the administration staff and health professionals would be separated in the government hospitals to improve health delivery system.
About civic facilities in the provincial capital, Pervez Khattak said Rs29 billion had been allocated for improvement of roads and other facilities in Peshawar.
He said the government would outsource sanitation services in Peshawar by next September, while tenders for rehabilitation of 13 parks in the city had been launched.
Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014