LB polls: KP govt, opposition talks fail, strike today

PESHAWAR: The talks between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and opposition parties could make no headway as the government team failed to convince the opposition parties to call off their protest.

They would now go ahead with the strike and protest demonstrations across the province today (Wednesday) against the alleged rigging and massive irregularities in the recently-held local government elections.

Moreover, the proposal to form a judicial commission on the rigging allegations was also rejected by the opposition parties.

Soon after the government-convened All Parties Conference (APC) at the Chief Minister’s House on Tuesday, a government team comprising four provincial ministers including Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, Minister for Health Shahram Tarakai, Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani and Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan visited Bacha Khan Markaz to meet the leaders of the three-party opposition alliance - Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

ANP Central Secretary General Mian Iftikhar Hussain, who is also president of the three-party alliance, PPP senior leaders Rahimdad Khan and Najmuddin Khan, JUI-F leaders Haji Ghulam Ali and Abdul Jalil Jan were present at the ANP’s central headquarters for talks with the government representatives.

The ministers, as per decision of the APC, requested the opposition parties to postpone their protest call as all their demands would be accepted. Inayatullah Khan, who was leading the government team, told the opposition parties’ leaders that they were ready to hold re-elections, probe the rigging charges and other demands of the opposition parties. The minister was optimistic about the talks and he insisted that the process of dialogue would continue, which he said, was beauty of democracy.

The opposition parties turned down the government’s request, saying that nothing less than the resignation of the provincial government was acceptable to them. Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the government should relinquish power forthwith, constitute a caretaker set-up and re-arrange local government polls under it.

He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had failed to hold fair and transparent polls for the local government system in a peaceful manner. “We can’t expect transparency in election under them,” he argued.

Mian Iftikhar castigated the government for calling the APC to foil their protest drive. “The government’s intentions behind the APC are not good. They should have convened the conference a few days before or soon after the local government elections,” he said.

The ANP leader said that the PTI chief Imran Khan felt rigging in general elections after one year, though the general elections had been held under caretaker set-up and not under Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). “The local government elections on the other hand have been conducted by the PTI government,” he said.

He further said that they were taking their case to the court of the masses. He said that their protest would remain peaceful. The government should provide protection to the peaceful protestors and avoid provocation, he added.

Mian Iftikhar maintained that they believed in talks and the doors for dialogue should not be closed in a democratic system. However, there was unanimity among the political parties over rigging in the local government polls and even the parties in the ruling coalition were complaining of massive rigging, he remarked.

The opposition parties also rejected the proposal of KP government that it would form a judicial commission to probe into rigging and irregularities in local bodies polls.

The three-party alliance has also been joined by PML-N and some major trade organisations to make the shutdown strike and protest campaign a success. It is feared that all the major market places across the province would remain closed today (Wednesday).