ISLAMBAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday said the law-and-order situation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) was worsening because Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led provincial government had previously welcomed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Asif expressed these views on the floor of the National Assembly while responding to MNA Mohsin Dawar, who had voiced concern over the increase in incidences of terrorism in the province following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The minister maintained that there is tension on both sides of the border that the government is working to resolve.
He said that Ghulam Khan in North Waziristan was a local problem that was being looked into as a committee comprising political elders has been formed to visit the Pakistan-Afghanistan entry point in the area.
“But the situation is getting worse across K-P,” said Asif, adding that while the PTI government had welcomed the people of the banned group in the province in the past, “anti-TTP protests are now being held”.
It is pertinent to note that protests against the militant outfit are being held in North Waziristan for the past 26 days with the people demanding “peace and protection”.
Earlier, talks between Pakistan and the outlawed TTP reached a deadlock as the militant group refused to budge from its demand for the reversal of the merger of erstwhile Fata with K-P.
There has also been a stalemate over the issue of TTP laying down their arms in case of a peace deal, which would enable them to return to their homeland.
Despite a series of meetings between the two sides, there had been no breakthrough. “There is a deadlock. And the prospects of a peace deal are not bright,” a source connected to the peace efforts had said.
Pakistan was hoping that a peace deal with the TTP or its certain breakaway factions would weaken the terrorist network.
Meanwhile, lawmakers on Saturday again expressed their concern over the ongoing campaign against the country’s armed forces and urged political parties not to drag the state institutions into politics.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif without naming Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said if the army did not want to play any political role, then there was no need for anyone to give its reference in speeches during the public meetings.
The statement came at a time when Mr Khan was addressing PTI’s power show in Lahore.
“Do not drag the army into politics if it wanted to stay away from politics. Please let the army, bureaucrats and judiciary function within their constitution limits,” said the minister when given the floor by Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to open a debate on the diamond jubilee celebrations of the country’s first constituent assembly.
Without naming Shahbaz Gill, the defence minister alleged that the arrested PTI member had “incited” the army, which was ‘unacceptable’, adding that the PPP and the PML-N had suffered in the past at the hands of the establishment, but even then they did not use the kind of language used by “that person”.
Later, PTI dissident Ahmed Hussain Deharr also lashed out at Mr Khan for allegedly maligning the national institutions. He said those who were running a campaign against the national institutions were “traitors” and deserved to be tried under Article 6.
Federal minister and PPP leader Syed Khursheed Shah urged politicians to review past mistakes and identify those who were responsible for bringing the country to present chaotic situation.