PESHAWAR: Central spokesperson for the Awami National Party Engineer Ihsanullah Khan on Friday said the Constitution couldn`t serve the interests of any individual, personal rule or institutional dominance.

`Constitutional amendments must solely aim to protect public interest, provincial rights, federal equity and democratic stability,` said Mr Khan in a statement.

He said the ANP would support the proposed 28thconstitutional amendment only if the government fully honoured the commitments made on the occasion of the passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment.

The ANP`s spokesperson said that the party would not accept any compromise on provincial rights and that all protections related to the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the NFC Award, provincial autonomy and the constitutional safeguards for federating units must remain unchanged.He said the amendment must include constitutional relief in electricity matters for hydel powerproducing provinces.

Mr Khan said that no federal tax, surcharge or additional cost should be imposed on electricity consumed within such provinces.

He demanded that the electricity price for domestic consumers in those provinces be fixed at Rs10 perunitforupto500units.

The spokesperson said the amendment must ensure the protection oftobacco growers and uphold the provinces` right to collect tobaccorelated revenue.

He said all taxes imposed on tobacco farmers should be abolished immediately.

`All the taxes collected from industries on the purchase of raw tobacco must be given to the province where it is grown.

The spokesperson also called for a constitutional guarantee for the `permanent` establishment of local governments.

He said regular localgovernment elections must be held every four years in accordance with Article 140-A of the Constitution, with constitutional safeguards to ensure that no administrative authority has the power to suspend, dissolve or replace those elected bodies.

Mr Khan said the amendment must also restore the historical identity of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

`We reaffirm our longstanding demand that the province be constitution-ally recognised as Pukhtunkhwa to reflect its cultural, linguistic and historical heritage,` he said.

The spokesperson emphasised that any constitutional amendment should be rooted in public interest, provincial rights, and the strengthening of federal democracy.

`If these principles are ignored, the ANP will strongly resist such amendments both in parliament and at public level,` he said. Bureau Report