Likely crackdown on NCP vehicles opposed

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) deputy chief Inayatullah Khan on Thursday expressed serious reservations over the reports of crackdown against the non-custom paid vehicles in Malakand division and said that any such move would be vehemently resisted.

Addressing a news conference here, Inayatullah Khan, who has also served as senior minister of the province several times, said that the reports about possible crackdown against the non-custom paid vehicles had created an unrest among the people of Malakand division.

Flanked by former MNA from Chitral, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, former MPA from Upper Dir Mohammad Ali and JI provincial secretary information Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, he said that the people of Malakand division had already been facing severe deprivations.

“The people of the seven districts of the Malakand division have attached to various kinds of jobs relating to the 0.5 million non-custom paid vehicles in the division,” he added.He said that the people of Malakand division had already been affected badly by lawlessness, joblessness and unaffordable inflation.

Inayatullah Khan said that the government had already promised 10-year tax exemption with the people of Malakand division. But, unfortunately, the caretaker government in the province was violating its mandate, he added.

The job of the interim government was to conduct free, transparent and timely polls only, he said, adding steps aimed at enhancing financial resources and bringing more and more people under the tax net were the responsibility of the elected government.

The interim government was trying to create hurdles in holding timely elections by provoking the people of Malakand division in the name of crackdown against non-custom paid vehicles, he remarked.

He further said that if the interim government was sincere in registration of the non-custom paid vehicles, it would have adopted a number of alternative measures. The government should avert the policy of provocation of the masses through action against non-custom paid vehicles so that the election could be delayed, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, ex-MNA Abdul Akbar Chitrali alleged that the caretaker government in the province was a continuation of the PDM government. He said that both the PTI and PDM had failed to deliver during their respective rules.