PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has announced conditional support for the 28th Amendment and demanded that the promises made during the 27th Amendment be fulfilled and the province be named Pakhtunkhwa by restoring the historical status of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
ANP’s central spokesperson Engineer Ehsanullah Khan said in a statement that the Constitution of Pakistan cannot be a means of achieving individual, personal power or institutional supremacy. The aim of constitutional amendments should be only public interest, protection of provincial rights, federal justice and democratic stability.
He said that the ANP will support the 28th Constitutional Amendment only if the promises made during the 27th Constitutional Amendment are fully fulfilled, and all constitutional safeguards related to the 18th Constitutional Amendment, NFC Award, provincial autonomy and provincial rights should be maintained without any change.
The ANP spokesperson said that the ANP will not accept any compromise on provincial rights, that constitutional relief on electricity should be given to hydel power producing provinces in the 28th Constitutional Amendment, that no federal tax, surcharge or additional cost should be imposed on the use of electricity in hydel power producing provinces.
He said that the price of electricity for domestic consumers in such provinces up to 500 units should be fixed at Rs. 10 per unit.
Engineer Ehsanullah Khan said that the protection of tobacco farmers and the right to provincial revenue should be ensured in the 28th Constitutional Amendment, that all taxes imposed on tobacco farmers should be abolished immediately, and that the entire tax collected from industries on the purchase of raw tobacco should be given to the province where this tobacco is produced.
He said that the 28th Constitutional Amendment should provide a constitutional guarantee for the permanent establishment of local governments, that local government elections should be held regularly every four years across the country as per Article 140A, and that it should also be ensured that no administrative authority would have the power to suspend, dissolve or replace these institutions.
The ANP spokesperson demanded that the historical identity of Pakhtunkhwa be restored in the 28th Constitutional Amendment and the ANP reiterates its demand to recognize the name of the province as ‘Pakhtunkhwa’.