Against provincial govt: Coalition partners reject Galiyat’s privatisation

Local leaders of JI, PTI join hands to reject GDA bill

ABBOTABAD: The local leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamaat-e-Islami kept their coalition intact even outside the K-P Assembly by joining hands to reject the Galiyat Development Authority (GDA) Amendment Bill, 2016 on Tuesday.

While talking to journalists, Abbottabad district nazim Sardar Sher Bahadur, known as one of the renegades of PTI, said the four private members of GDA Board of Governors wanted to sell or lease out the entire Galiyat valley. He added the move was unacceptable to the residents of the area as they were not taken on board.

JI Abbottabad leader Abdul Razzaq Abbasi said the amendment was meant to rob the picturesque valley of its beauty. He added PTI Chairperson Imran Khan wanted to please his friends at the cost of the valuable land of Galiyat. “But we will not allow him to sell or lease even a single inch of land or a single tree to his friends.”



He announced launching a movement against PTI on August 10 that will continue till the amendment — that the provincial assembly adopted last week — is reversed.

Moreover, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s tehsil council member Jibrail Abbasi criticised PTI government’s policies, saying when the federal government had shown its intention of privatising Pakistan International Airlines, PTI’s leadership opposed it on the plea that PML-N was trying to
make money.

He added the double standard of PTI government was visible from the recent amendment in the GDA act. He said the people of Galiyat will resist privatisation of GDA at every cost.

The PML-N MPA from Galiyat, Amna Sardar, and party’s parliamentary leader in the K-P Assembly, Aurangzeb Nalota, also rejected the amendment both on the floor of the house and later while talking to journalists.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2016.