Tariq Saeed Peshawar
Accusing the Shehbaz Sharif-led Federal Government of totally neglecting interests of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Wednesday warned of complete non-cooperation to the Center by the province if the former “failed to mend its ways.
“The Center has mercilessly failed to fulfil its promises and responsibilities vis a vis KP and should now be ready to face the consequences. It failed to release hundreds of billions of rupees dues of the KP province.
Enough is enough; don’t test our patience any longer, I am telling Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif the last time to give Khyber Pakhtunkhwa its due money and bring an end to the unprecedented load shedding on the province,” Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said while addressing a press conference. He also directed the concerned MPAs to forcibly enter the grid stations and restore the power if the load shedding exceeds specific hours.
With the power loadshedding dispute in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reaching a critical point, the Chief Minister also broke into a grid station in D I Khan and forcibly restored the power supply.
On the occasion, Gandapur fixed the load shedding duration at 12 hours. “No area will face load shedding beyond 12 hours. Assembly the federal government for withholding approximately Rs1,600 billion in dues and revenues owed to the provincial government.
“The federal government said it needs some time to review the power system and asked for our support,” he said. “However, the timeline given to the Centre has expired. I tried to contact Federal Minister for Energy (Power Division) Awais Leghari but received no response.”
“This means you (the people) and we are free,” he stated, urging everyone to follow his policy and spread it. “No one should damage any Wapda asset because it is our asset, made with our tax money.”
Addressing the police, Gandapur said: “I have informed the KP police chief that no cases should be registered against anyone at Wapda’s request. This is KP’s police. It is not bound to Wapda. Wapda is committing injustice, and we are not getting our due rights. You have to act justly.”
“Imran Khan has made me the chief minister of your province. As the chief executive, you must follow my instructions.”
To the administration, he emphasised the need to follow his directives, ensuring personnel accompany lawmakers to oversee grid stations and ensure no faults and no loadshedding beyond 12 hours.
