Power, gas denial to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “unfair and unconstitutional”: Pakistan’s Awami National Party

Islamabad [Pakistan]: Amid power and gas outages in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Awami National Party central senior vice president Ameer Haider Khan Hoti stressed that the party was committed to fighting for the rights of Pakhtuns, reported Dawn.

He further demanded an immediate halt to power and gas outages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, stating that the denial of electricity and natural gas to the residents is unfair and unconstitutional.

“We [ANP] are making a struggle to claim rights for Pakhtuns and will continue doing so. We have never fought for power and won’t do so in future as well,” Hoti told a workers’ convention in the PK-81 constituency.

Hoti further said that the constitution declared that the area producing gas would have the first right to it, but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was still denied gas despite more production than required, the statement by ANP said.

According to Dawn, Hoti said that if Punjab had the first right to its produced wheat, then the first right to power and gas produced by Pakhtuns were theirs.

Mr Hoti complained that whenever Pakhtuns talked about their resources and control over them, “their ways” were blocked.

He called the power and gas cuts in KP, “completely unfair and unconstitutional.”
Moreover, he said that the Islamabad authorities were trying to portray Pakhtuns as power thieves.

“The real power thieves are those, who are selling electricity of Rs 4 per unit to us for Rs 40. If the actual electricity price is collected from the people, power theft will go away by itself,” he said.

“For us, going to assemblies is the solution to unrest and restoration of peace on our soil,” he added.

Criticising Imran Khan’s government, he further said that when Khan was in power, he used to humiliate innocent people by arrests, reported The Express Tribune.

He added the ANP was subjected to excessive “atrocities” in the past.

“Before the 2013 elections, Bashir Bilour was taken away from us, while ahead of the 2018 elections, Haroon Bilour was eliminated. We’re denied entry to the assemblies sometimes through terrorism and sometimes through poll rigging,” he said.

ALP Leader further said that his party never incited its workers to get violent against the state and sympathize with the PTI workers, who were involved in the May 9-10 riots.