Call for unity: We want peace and will sacrifice for it, says Aftab Sherpao
Offers support to centre, criticises PTI govt for failing to protect polio workers.
Aftab appealed to all political parties to come together and not politicise peace. PHOTO: MUHAMMAD IQBAL/EXPRESS/FILE
Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) chief Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said his party will completely support the federal government in restoring peace in the country.
“We want peace on our soil and are ready to render any sacrifice for it,” he told a gathering of QWP office-bearers and workers from Peshawar district on Saturday. Earlier, he presided over a meeting in Watan Kor, the party’s central secretariat.
Aftab appealed to all political parties to come together and not politicise peace. He said the all-parties conference had mandated the government to restore peace through talks. There was no need to hold another moot, said Sherpao.
Over 50,000 people, including women and children, had been killed in acts of militancy, shared Aftab, urging the government to set up a trust for the rehabilitation of affected families.
Coming down hard on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial government, he said the rulers have failed to honour their pledges and have let down people, especially the youth. “The rulers are paying lip service to the problems being faced by the public.”
Deteriorating law and order has also hampered efforts to fight polio, stated the QWP chief. “Kidnapping for ransom, extortion and targeted killings have become the order of the day,” he said, adding the attacks on polio teams have marred efforts to curb the crippling disease – a damage which may soon be irreparable. “Attacks on polio vaccinators have tarnished the country’s reputation at an international level.”
QWP’s district organisers from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa attended the meeting along with QWP leaders Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli and others.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2014.