MARDAN - Former federal minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Khawaja Mohammad Khan Hoti has strongly criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan and said that he has double standards.
Referring to Imran’s statement in which he had said that when he would come to power in Punjab and Sindh, he would make farmers-friendly policies, Hoti said while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) where he was in power, his policy was anti-farmers.
He expressed these views while addressing a news conference at Mardan Press club. Khwaja Hoti demanded the government to immediately increase the rate of sugarcane and also bind the sugar mills owners to purchase the sugarcane from the farmers at the government-fixed rates.
Hoti added that like sugarcane farmers, the farmers selling tobacco also faced lots of problems. “The government has no policy for sugarcane and tobacco crops which are cash crops of the province,” the PPP leader lamented.
Hoti demanded the provincial government to immediately announce farmer-friendly policies in KP as PTI chief Imran Khan had announced in his speeches in Punjab and Sindh province. “Imran should start farmer friendly policies from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where he is in power,” he stressed.
He added that in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa the farmers were compelled to burn their sugarcane crops due to the wrong polices of the government.
Hoti warned the provincial government that if it failed to solve the farmers’ issues within 15 days, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and farmers of the district will jointly start agitation and protest against it.
He added that no hospital in the district provided medicines to the patients free of cost.
Hoti said that PTI claimed that it had brought change in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, but they cheated people of the country through these hollow claims.
He alleged that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police has no money to purchase uniforms for their Jawans, while bribe is also being received by the police still and the old police culture was rampant in the province.
Hoti accused that PTI lawmakers of Mardan district allegedly received 11 to 12 percent commission from the contractors in the contracts. Khwaja Hoti also strongly criticized the National Accountailty Bureau (NAB) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Ehtasab Commission and said that they did not take action against the corrupt people of the province. Khawja Hoti added that PTI chief Imran Khan declared Punjab Metro bus service “Jangla” service but at the end of their government, they declared it a worthy service and started construction work on it in Peshawar. Khwaja Hoti claimed that provincial government has totally failed while the PTI chief Imran Khan through fake slogans cheated the masses of Punjab, Sindh and other provinces. He added that if provincial cabinet fails to immediately release these lists then he along with the party local leaders and office bearers will meet the party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and inform them about the current situation.