F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) leader and former senior minister Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao on Sunday said that the report of the Auditor General of Pakistan into irregularities in the Bus Rapid Transit project was a test case for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
He was speaking at a press conference at Watan Kor, where village council Khazana nazim Basharat Khan announced quitting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and joined the QWP along with his family and supporters.
Basharat Khan reposed confidence in the leadership of the QWP.
QWP leaders Hashim Babar and Asad Afridi Advocate were also present on the occasion.
Sikandar Sherpao said the PTI government was now closing the Project Management Unit for pinpointing flaws in the project. Commenting on the federal budget, he said that new taxes had been proposed in it which would add to the miseries of the people.
He said that the federal budget was made on the diktats of the International Monetary Fund. He said that Rs45 billion were allocated for uplift projects in Karachi and Rs15 billion were earmarked for Quetta, but no allocations were made for Peshawar in the federal budget.
He said that conducting the election for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats in the merged district under the supervision of the army showed that the civil administration did not have the ability to hold the polls.
He added that soldiers could be deployed for security, however, conducting the proceedings of the election was the job of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Sikandar Sherpao said that the announcement of the uplift projects for the tribal districts amounted to pre-poll rigging and the ECP should take its notice.
The QWP leader said that a three-member delegation of the QWP led by its Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao would attend the all parties conference convened by the opposition to iron out a strategy on how deal with the problems facing the country.
Sikandar Sherpao said that the people particularly the youth had become disenchanted with the PTI government due to its flawed policies in the last 10 months.
He said that his party would soon launch a mass contact movement to mobilize the people and stage protests against price-hike and employment in the country.
