PML-N

PML-N
Backs the HAZARA province:

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is not against the demand for a separate Hazara province in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a top party official said in what appears to be an “unwilling deviation” from its conventional stance on the issue of more federating units.

“If nothing else can cool tempers against the renaming of the NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, then our party will have no objection,” PML-N stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told journalists here .

“Our party is with the people of Hazara … and if matters can be settled by creating a new province for them (people of Hazara), we will not oppose this demand,” said Khan.

It is for the first time that the PML-N has publicly announced support for calls to create a separate Hazara province since the renaming of the province sparked violent protests in Hazara region.

Traditionally, the party has been ignoring such demands from the poverty-stricken southern region of Punjab.

Hazara is the only place outside Punjab where the PML-N has a strong parliamentary presence but its support for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa almost cost it political support in the region.

Khan, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, said the PML-N was considering a plan to chalk out a strategy to create a separate Hazara province. He, however, did not mention whether or not the party would support if people in south Punjab, known as Seraiki region, also come up with a similar demand.

In its meeting in Murree last month, the PML-N central leadership reportedly considered two options to recover political ground it lost to rivals in Hazara.The opinion was divided between supporting the creation of a new province and introducing another constitutional amendment to again change the name of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Khan said his party would strongly oppose the imposition of the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the Centre and in any province.

He said that his party expected the government would give relief to the poverty-stricken masses in the upcoming budget. Otherwise, he added, the PML-N would devise a policy to give tough time to the government in and outside parliament.

Khan warned the government against a confrontation with the Supreme Court, saying a “clash of institutions” might be lethal for the fragile democratic system.

He also ridiculed the government’s way of putting up a defence to the 18th constitutional amendment in the apex court, arguing that it could have been done in a much better way.