PESHAWAR: The absence of provincial ministers and other senior leaders of PPP at hospitals, the explosion site and homes of the blast victims was strongly felt after a string of suicide attacks in the city in the last few weeks.
On the other hand, the Awami National Party (ANP), senior partner of the PPP in the NWFP coalition government, has not only publicly owned the ongoing fight against militancy but its ministers are seen visiting explosion sites and hospitals despite being on the hit-list of terrorists.
The car bombing at the entrance to the crowded Meena Bazaar in Peshawar city, fifth in the current month, killed at least 107 persons and wounded over 150. Besides a mosque, seven houses and dozens of shops were destroyed as a result of the powerful blast and fire.
The blast site, Chirri Koban, is located at the junction of NWFP Assembly constituencies PF-2 and PF-3 Peshawar. NWFP Minister for Health Syed Zahir Ali Shah, also the provincial chief of the PPP, has been elected from PF-2 while NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Bilour, also the parliamentary party leader of the ANP, is representing the PF-3 constituency.
Bashir Bilour, who survived two suicide attacks on his life, visited almost each and every house of the victims, and offered fateha for the departed souls. “The terrorists could not deter us by such cowardly attacks,” he told reporters at Mohalla Jattan where eight members of a family were killed in Wednesday’s blast. His elder brother and Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour also visited the hospital to meet the injured.
The ANP-affiliated provincial minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain was the first among top government functionaries to reach the bombing site and reiterate his government’s support for the security forces’ offensive against militants in South Waziristan and rest of the tribal and settled areas of the province.
NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti along with senior ministers Bashir Bilour and Rahimdad Khan, former provincial president of the PPP, Mian Iftikhar Hussain and some MPAs visited the hospital late in the night where he met the injured and hospital staff.
Speaker of the NWFP Assembly Kiramatullah Chagharmati, who was elected on PPP ticket, not only paid a visit to Lady Reading Hospital but also donated blood for the wounded persons following an appeal by the hospital authorities.
Peshawar witnessed six deadly explosions during the last four weeks, leaving more than 200 innocent people dead. The ANP Peshawar city unit also staged a peace rally, led by Bashir Bilour, some two week back from Peshawar Press Club to Soekarno Chowk to condemn the suicide attacks in the city.
In the 26-member NWFP cabinet, PPP is represented by 11 provincial ministers. Out of four MNAs from Peshawar district, two each belong to PPP and ANP while three out of 11 have been elected on the PPP tickets in 2008 elections.
When contacted by phone, NWFP Minister for Excise & Taxation Liaqat Ali Shabab told this scribe that the provincial health minister was out of the country. He reminded that the PPP leadership and ministers had always condemned the terrorist attacks in Peshawar and elsewhere in the country. “We have strong determination to eliminate terrorists from our soil and in this regard we fully support the security forces operations in Waziristan and other parts of the country,” he said. He argued that the terrorists had now targetted public places to put pressure on the provincial and federal governments to stop the military operation in Waziristan.
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