All eyes on the capital: K-P lawmakers plan trip to Islamabad for another sit-in

CM says MPAs to protest power outages, changes to China-Pak corridor

PESHAWAR:

Memories of last year’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led demonstrations in the federal capital could have started to fade, however, the party’s government in K-P has announced another sit-in. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak announced on Thursday that K-P’s lawmakers will set forth to the Parliament on Tuesday to protest changes to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and power outages.

Khattak was at the provincial legislature after chairing a meeting of the Parliamentary Leaders’ Committee at the Assembly Secretariat on Thursday to discuss differences between K-P and the federal government.

Where’s the power?

Khattak said K-P was facing prolonged power cuts despite the prime minister ordering no more than six hours of power outages in urban and eight hours in rural areas.

He said if the Peshawar Electric Supply Company cannot stop power theft, the K-P government will be compelled to withdraw its security from the utility. Khattak said Wapda’s responsibility was to stop power theft and the government provided them with security for the same purpose. He said all power thieves should be taken to task, but the public should not be punished for the sins of others.



He said MPAs have deposited money with Pesco for power transformers, but the utility has not provided a single lawmaker with a transformer for his constituency. “We will claim interest on these deposits and will be forced to seal Wapda stores as measure of a last resort.”

He asked WAPDA to explain their distribution of power transformers, adding the devices were being kept from those who had paid money for them. “We will resort to confrontation if our rights are denied,” he said.

Khattak said lawmakers would gather at K-P House in Islamabad on Tuesday around 10am and march to the Parliament to stage a sit-in.

Where’s the money?

He said deals made with the Chinese government chased costly thermal power projects, while the hydels of K-P were ignored. The province had feasibility reports ready for the generation of up to 5,000 megawatts of electricity. He claimed K-P could produce up to 15,000 to 20,000 megawatts of cheap electricity without much difficulty.

Khattak also called for the early payment of the province’s share of net hydel profit on a regular basis. According to the CM, the province’s hydel profit arrears amounted to Rs146 billion plus Rs26 billion as mark-up.

Khattak said the CPEC entailed about eight economic zones and demanded two of these be set up in DI Khan and Hazara. He added there was no conspiracy against CPEC and it was the federal government which changed the original route.

Where’s the government?

QWP’s parliamentary leader Sikandar Sherpao announced his support of the K-P government’s decision and criticised the Centre for prolonged power outages and denial of the province’s rights.

Sikandar warned the sense of deprivation among smaller provinces could be dangerous for the country.

However, he also took a dig at the provincial government, saying it showed negligence towards K-P’s problems. He said that it was the government’s duty to protect the province’s rights and the opposition could only support it.

No to sit-ins

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha said the government should constitute a jirga of lawmakers and meet the prime minster to discuss the province’s demands instead of launching a protest.

“The protest should be the last resort,” he said. Nalotha added the PTI wasted over a year in dharnas. “The government should have paid attention to the province’s problems instead of wasting time on sit-ins.”

Earlier, Speaker Asad Qaiser suspended the house’s routine agenda to allow members to discuss these vital issues in detail.

The session was later adjourned till Friday afternoon.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2015.