BATKHELA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, president and MNA Junaid Akbar on Sunday pledged full support for the people of Malakand Division in their opposition to the proposed imposition of taxes, saying the region should first be provided with basic facilities and development before any taxation is enforced.
Addressing a protest demonstration in Batkhela organised by the Joint Action Committee comprising political parties and trade unions, Junaid Akbar said the people of Malakand, along with their elected representatives, would have to raise a united voice against the proposed taxes.
He claimed that PTI founder Imran Khan, PMLN president Nawaz Sharif, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other political leaders had shown little concern over the issue of withdrawing the proposed taxes in Malakand Division.
The PTI provincial head said that whenever the people of Malakand announced a protest against the tax proposal, the province’s elected representatives, PTI workers and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi would stand at the forefront of the movement.
A large number of traders, leaders and workers of various political parties, and representatives of civil society attended the demonstration and rejected the proposed tax regime for Malakand Division.
Among those who addressed the gathering were former provincial minister Shah Raz Khan of Jamaat-i-Islami, PPP district president Ahmad Ali Shah Bacha, JUIF district general secretary Salman Taseer, Joint Action Committee president Ijaz Khan, Trade Union president Sikandar Hayat, Haji Shakirullah, Qaumi Jirga president Maulana Javed, Pir Azmat Shah, Ilyas Khan and Hamid Khan Lala, president of the Sakhakot Bazaar traders’ body.
The speakers warned the deputy commissioner against allowing the establishment of offices for tax collection in Malakand, saying the public would strongly resist any such move.
They said that the government should first address the region’s longstanding deprivation by improving healthcare, education, drinking water supply, road infrastructure and employment opportunities before imposing taxes. The people of Malakand would not accept any taxation until the area’s backwardness was eliminated, they added.
