PESHAWAR: Various political parties on Monday announced the formation of a working group to force the provincial government to fulfil its commitments for the development of the provincial capital.

The announcement came during a meeting convened by the JUI-F at its of fices located on GT Road here.

The meeting was chaired by JUI-F leader Maulana Khairul Bashar and attended by PPP`s Zahir Ali Shah, Syed Ayub Shah and Zulfiqar Afghani, dis-gruntled PTI MPA Ziaullah Afridi, JUIF`s Asif Iqbal Daudzai, Maulana Amanullah Haqqani and Maulana Abdul Jalil Jan and Jamaat-i-Islami`s Sirajuddin Durrani. A local PML-N activist was also in attendance.

However, ANP, Qaumi Watan Party and PML-Q leaders didn`t show up at the conference.

Zahir Ali Shah said the meeting was called to create understanding among different political parties to join hands for the development of Peshawar district as the provincial government had failed to initiate any mega scheme there.

`The government is claiming to have allocated billions of rupees worth of funds for the beautification and development of Peshawar but no visible scheme has been launched so far,` he said.

The PPP leader said Peshawar wasthe face of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but unclean streets, ruined roads, contaminated drinking water, dangling electric wires, overflowing sewage and other civic issues had defaced it.

He said decorating some vases at the city`s entry points or roadsides didn`t mean development and that the government was responsible for using the relevant funds completely on the improvement of roads, streets, pavements, and power system.

`We will also contact the federal government to stop the massive loadshedding of power and gas. Af ter the advent of winter season, gas loadshedding has also begun forcing the people to go for firewood and LPG for domestic use,` he said.

Syed Ayub Shah insisted the provincial funds were meant for few districts like Nowshera, Dir, Mardan and Swabi.

He said Peshawar should be given pri-ority for development being the capital of the province and that the people of all districts and tribal regions had to come here in connection with routine work.

He added that the government should initiate development schemes in the capital on priority basis.

MPA Ziaullah Afridi claimed before his 15 months` imprisonment, he had got allocated sufficient funds for the development of Peshawar but work on all proposed schemes was halted as he was behind bars.

`I have announced the `Build Peshawar movement` in order to bring the required funds for the district,` he said.

The lawmaker said if Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi and Dir got funds, why the provincial capital was ignored.

The JUI-F leaders criticised the PTIgovernment for `misusing development funds in protest rallies` and insisted the people in the province lacked basic facilities.

They urged political parties to joinnanas ano collectively work for the development of Peshawar.

On the occasion, a committee headed by Syed Zahir Ali Shah was formed to contact leaders of all political parties, including the PTI, to play due role for Pe s h a w a r`s development.The participants also decided that a working group would be formed in the next meeting to achieve targets for the purpose. They also urged media to support them.