Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi announced on Sunday that he would soon convene a grand jirga for consultations with stakeholders across the province for a protest march on Islamabad.
\nThe CM shared his plans at a jirga at Khyber\u2019s Jamrud Sports Complex, which he had announced last Sunday while responding to the federal government\u2019s stance that neither the Centre, nor the military, had issued any directives for the \u201cdepopulation\u201d of the Tirah Valley.
\nThe federal and provincial governments have been trading barbs over who authorised the evacuation process in the valley after hundreds of Tirah residents vacated their homes amid concerns about a planned military actions.
\nThe evacuations, which were carried out in line with a plan agreed upon by all stakeholders \u2014 including local elders, the provincial government and the military \u2014 seem to have become a bone of contention after the displaced populace found themselves stranded in cold weather under open skies, with mismanagement by the authorities only adding to their troubles.
\nEarlier this week, the federal government also insisted that the movement was actually seasonal migration and a routine practice, further maintaining that no military action had been planned for Tirah.
\nAt the peace jirga today, the KP CM asked those attending the gathering if they would accompany him for a protest march towards Islamabad to express their resentment against the \u201catrocities\u201d which the people of Tirah had been subjected to, their \u201cforced displacement\u201d and the \u201cgovernment\u2019s U-turn on the military operation\u201d.
\nThe CM said he would soon undertake a visit to merged districts to take their residents into confidence and would then convene a grand jirga prior to announcing a date for a protest march towards the federal capital.
\n\u201cWe will assert at the grand jirga that only people are entitled to rule Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it belongs to them, and that no decisions made behind closed doors in Islamabad will be acceptable any more\u201d, he said among vociferous sloganeering from the emotionally charged audience.
\nAfridi said that \u201cno power on the earth could shake his confidence nor could his conscience be bought if he has the solid support and backing of his own people\u201d.
\nHe alleged that conspiracies were hatched so that either governor\u2019s rule could be enforced in the province or he was disqualified and sent packing on the basis of \u201cconcocted cases\u201d. He claimed conspiracies were also planned to \u201celiminate him he if does not submit to the narrative of his political rivals\u201d.
\nBut, \u201cI have firm faith in God and I am not scared of anyone as I am a tribal and will never budge from our stated policy about militancy and military operations\u201d, he asserted.
\nOn the allegations of the misuse of Rs4 billion pledged by his government for the displaced families of Tirah, he said he would not hesitate to sanction even Rs100bn if the need arose as the federal government had \u201creneged on its promises of providing a paltry amount of Rs400,000 to the displaced families affected by previous military operations\u201d.
\nThe CM vowed that \u201cexemplary punishment\u201d would be given to those who were found guilty of any irregularity in the utilisation of funds allocated for the displaced families of Tirah.
\nHe alleged discrimination against the people of KP, claiming: \u201cWe are considered as second class citizens. But I will continue to raise my voice against this injustice as I, being a soldier of Imran Khan, know how to secure our rights.\u201d
\nHe further stated that he would travel to Islamabad on Monday to meet the prime minister to \u201cplead the case of KP\u2019s rights and secure our outstanding dues\u201d.
\nAfridi then termed the federal government\u2019s stance on the displacement of Tirah people \u201ca joke\u201d and insisted that the \u201cpeople of tribal areas have always rendered sacrifices for the country and they will dispel the negative propaganda against them\u201d.
\nThe CM said the federal government \u201cchanged its stance on Tirah\u201d on after the international media reported about the \u201cactual sufferings of the people of the valley\u201d.
\n\u201cWe have been clamouring for a long time against the presence of outlawed militant groups in different parts of KP, particularly Tirah, and reminding the federal government that militant activities have increased. But, nobody took our assertions seriously while the situation gradually went out of everybody\u2019s hands\u201d, he said.
\nHe warned that the federal government\u2019s statement about Tirah would lead to \u201cpeople losing their confidence in the security establishment\u201d.
\nOn the occasion, he also announced the establishment of a relief fund for the poor and needy in KP and appealed to the wealthy to contribute to it. The contributions would later be distributed among the needy people in Ramazan, he announced.
\nHe also condemned the terror attacks carried out in different parts of Balochistan on Saturday and expressed his solidarity with the people of the province while saying that the people of KP shared the grief and agony of the affected families.
\nEarlier, provincial minister Meena Khan, MNA Iqbal Afridi, MPAs Abdul Ghani and Adnan Qadri Aldo made hard hitting speeches and held the federal government responsible for all the hardships faced by the displaced families of Tirah.
\nConspicuous by their absence were the members of the jirga of Tirah tribes who had negotiated the evacuation of families from the valley with representatives of the provincial government and security officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi announced on Sunday that he would soon convene a grand jirga for consultations with stakeholders across the province for a protest march on Islamabad. The CM shared his plans at a jirga at Khyber\u2019s Jamrud Sports Complex, which he had announced last Sunday while responding to the federal government\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":93079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93081,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93064\/revisions\/93081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}