All Opposition Parties Conference: Opposition criticises govt

Asks election commission to take notice of massive spending ahead of general elections.

PESHAWAR: The All Opposition Parties Conference held on Thursday called for an end to load-shedding and drone strikes and demanded action against the sacrilegious film titled “Innocence of Muslims”.

This conference called by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam – Fazl (JUI-F) took place at the party’s provincial secretariat and was attended by leaders across the political spectrum. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam – Sami (JUI-S) was the only opposition party which did not participate.

Reading a declaration at the end of the conference, K-P Assembly Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani said the opposition groups expressed concern over the failure of the provincial government to resolve the electricity crisis in the province.

Durrani said the previous government received around Rs110 billion in lieu of net hydel profit proceeds from the federal government, but the incumbent government has only received half of that, about Rs55 billion.

He further said that the K-P government did not use the net hydel profit proceeds for further power generation, such as building dams and investing in energy, which had been agreed at the earlier APC called by the ANP-PPP government. The government should not have misused this amount for non-development expenditure, he said.

The resolution of the opposition APC demanded the government end the unwarranted power and gas outages in the province. Members also expressed concern over lawlessness in Balochistan, Karachi and the excessive bloodshed in K-P.

Durrani said the K-P government was entirely responsible for the ongoing lawlessness in the province, adding that it was riddled with corruption and nepotism.

Political leaders further said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should take notice of massive spending by the government ahead of the general elections.

The conference as a whole condemned the military operations in the tribal areas and drone attacks, and demanded the government to implement the parliament’s 14-point resolution to end the drone strikes.

The anti-Islam movie was also debated, with members agreeing that the US should apologise to the Muslim world and give exemplary punishment to those responsible for producing the film.

The opposition APC asked the issue be raised at the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the US ambassador be expelled from the country till an apology was received.

The conference further announced its support for the September 21 strike against the blasphemous movie.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2012.