ANP not against new provinces, provided that all constitutional requirements are met: Iftikhar

ANP not against new provinces, provided that all constitutional requirements are met: Iftikhar

Peshawar: (Friday, January 06, 2012) as the debate on the creation of new provinces heats up in National and Provincial assemblies, Minister for Information Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said today that his party was
not against the creation of new provinces, provided that all constitutional requirements are dully met.

The Information Minister KPK was replying to the demands of PML-Q member Qalandar Lodhi and Javed Iqbal Abbasi of PML-N who asked for support from the ruling party. Representing the ANP and PPP alliance, and commenting upon the
unanimous passage of the resolution regarding creation of Hazara Province, Mr. Iftikhar said he was in favour of constitutional moves for the creation of new province out of KPK territory.

While referring to the Hasaza Province movement leader Sardar Haider Zaman, he said, “It is strange that the elected representatives of Hazara were supporting a person who is not their well wisher and his past track record is a
testimony to the fact.”

In an emotional tone that was applauded by the treasury benches, he reminded that Haider Zaman had formed a political party to campaign for Hazara province and was no longer the unanimous leader of the movement.

The minister, who belongs to the ANP, claimed the resolution submitted by the MQM in the National Assembly was nothing but a political stunt. “The provincial assembly has the right under Article 239(4) of the Constitution to pass a resolution with two-thirds
majority about setting up of new provinces,” he added.

He said the statement of MQM leader Altaf Hussain about new provinces was unconstitutional and unlawful. He said that after the passage of the 18th Amendment the provincial assemblies had the right to pass any resolution for creating new provinces with two-thirds
majority.

The minister said that his party struggled for 60 years for renaming the province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “But we never became involved in any kind of blackmailing or ethnic discrimination while continuing our struggle for renaming
the province,” he stressed.

He said the chief minister had announced the establishment of Abaseen division in Hazara division by bringing together Battagram, Kohistan and Torghar districts. He said after completion of the population census the new Abaseen
division would become functional.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=8393

Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Jan 6 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry