NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has called for Pakistan’s withdrawal from the war on terror for “the good of the people and the country”. | "I mean, nobody's actually sure which side we're on, anyway. They might not even notice if we quit." |
| "It's simple, really, if everyone becomes an extremist, we'll have a caliphate and won't need martial law. See how easy that is?" |
Acknowledging tribal people as “patriots”, he said their patriotism was evident from their participation in the wars of 1948, 1965 and 1971. The people in the tribal area were aware that foreigners were behind the chaos that was created in the area because of the country’s “wrong foreign policy”, he said, adding that these foreigners were also against Chinese engineers working in the province. He also told the senators of the evidence against “foreign agents” who were caught red handed recently.
About minoritiesÂ’ rights in the province, he said the MMA government was serving them well, adding that he had laid the foundation stone for a church in the Peshawar University. Minority members of the NWFP Assembly were given Rs 1 million worth of development funds in the past, the CM said, but the MMA government had provided Rs 10 million each to all provincial assembly members, including minority members. On the other hand, he said, no opposition parliamentarians in the National Assembly (NA), including Opposition Leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, were given development funds.
He said if the MMA were to form government it would not harm world peace by adopting a hardline approach towards the use of nukes.
Separately, in a lunch hosted in honour of the police officers who recovered an abducted industrialist, the CM praised the NWFP police for safely recovering Dr Saeed Khan and arresting the kidnappers within 28 hours of the abduction. He said work on the Northern Bypass would start within 15 days, adding that the bypass would connect Charsada Road with Ring Road.
The MMAÂ’s democratic approach was evident from the NWFP advocate generalÂ’s stance in the Sharif brothers return case in the Supreme Court.
He said the MMA government had prepared an industrial-friendly policy according to industrialistsÂ’ recommendations. The MMA government had conducted the first-ever industrial conference in the 55-year-old history of the province, he said.