Counterproductive: ANP vows to protest against customs act

Accuses PTI-led govt of settling with Centre over the issue

MALAKAND: Awami National Party has vowed to start a campaign after Eidul Fitr against extending the Customs Act, 1969 to Malakand Division. It has threatened to bring people to the streets across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in protest.

ANP General Secretary and MPA Sardar Hussain Babak, in a statement issued to the media, said his party will take to the streets against the imposition of the customs act.

He alleged the provincial government had settled with the federal government to impose taxes in the war-torn Malakand Division. He said the government was rubbing salt on the wounds of the people of the region. The ANP leader said these citizens were adversely affected by the war against militancy.

Babak stated Prime Minister Nawaz Sahrif and Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaf Chairperson Imran Khan both visited Swat in recent weeks, but did not bother to resolve the thorny issue of extending the customs act. The areas include Dir, Swat, Shangla and Kohistan.

“It shows that Imran is working on [furthering] Punjab’s agenda and is not paying attention to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s issues.”

He accused provincial lawmakers voted in from Malakand Division of being responsible for extending the customs act. He asked the MPAs to decide whether they were siding with voters or supporting a government which wants to extend a law that would be detrimental for their area.



Locals and politicians alike have expressed their strong opposition to extending the customs act to Malakand Division. Leaders have repeatedly pointed out that the area has seen considerable turmoil in recent times to afford such a levy.

In April, ANP submitted an adjournment motion to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly against the extension of the customs act.

Babak is incidentally the one to have submitted this motion. “The prince of Swat and Nawab of Dir and Chitral made written pacts when their areas were merged into Pakistan. It was agreed customs and taxation laws would not be imposed on these former princely states until 2060,” Babak said in a statement at the time.

In the adjournment motion, the ANP leader stated Malakand Division and Kohistan were war-torn areas and the government should facilitate them. It maintained the problems of locals would increase through the extension of the act.

“The people of Malakand and Kohistan are protesting against the government’s tyrannical decision. Traders, civil society and people from all schools of thoughts are holding demonstrations,” the motion added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2016.