RECORDER REPORT

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has termed the Federal government responsible for continuously escalating price hike in the country.

He said foreign debts including loans from the IMF and other financial agencies resulted in increasing non-developmental expenditures of the government while the gas, electricity and petroleum’s prices had erupted storm of dearness in the country.

Addressing a mammoth public meeting at Jadoon House during his visit to Abbottabad, the Chief Minister said provinces had no powers to control prices because those were directly linked to federal government departments and policies.

He said federal government was not recognising Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on its map, saying since last four months he, in the capacity of the CM KP, was seeking appointment with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss some very crucial political and regional issues, but in vain.

KP CM said the PM and his ministers were accepting only Punjab as Pakistan, and foreign investors were being limited to only Punjab while the centre was denying the rights of KP. He said “heads of all federal departments including Wapda are not ready to hear us due to which, beside price hike, we are facing other problems too.”

Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali is calling the people of province thieves irrespective of the fact that he had appointed the Chief Executive of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), who himself was involved in power theft.

Khattak said they were fully supporting Pesco in campaign against power pilferage and on their request handed them over three police stations in Bannu, but they failed as they themselves were not interested in the abolition of power theft.

He said the people of KP were not thieves of electricity but Minister of State Abid Sher Ali himself was a thief as his own department was involved in power stealing.