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Govt has no intention

to curb provincial

autonomy: Omar

KARACHI: Omar Asghar Khan, Federal Minister for Local Government, has said that the present government has no intention to curb the provincial autonomy and the framework given by the Chief Executive on March 23 for the local government was aimed at transferring power to the peoples representatives.

Addressing a seminar on "Pakistan and the question of autonomy-Requirements of 21st century" organised by Sindh Thinkers Forum at a local hotel on Monday, Omar Asghar Khan said, the plan announced by the government for setting up district governments was not a final framework and it would be amended in the light of public debate. We have made it public for a thorough debate, he added.

He contended that 20 percent elite class was ruling 80 percent of the population of the country and the people had lost their confidence in the political institutions. The nation needs a new political culture and the government was taking steps in this direction, he said.

The minister said that the government wanted to give rights to the disfranchised classes of the population like Women, labour and peasants through the devolution of power in the proposed local government system.

Talking about the demand for renaming NWFP as the Pakhtoonkhawh, the minister said, there were different entities living in the province and that is the reason we are opposed to that suggestion.ÑPPI