Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi addresses the Khyber Peace Jirga on Sunday. Photo:X
KHYBER:
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Sunday announced plans to convene a major province-wide jirga as he prepares to launch a protest march to Islamabad against the “forced displacement” of Tirah Valley residents and a federal “U-turn” on the issue.
He also revealed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had invited him to a meeting on provincial rights, where he would present the case of the people of the province “with all strength and determination”.
According to sources, Afridi would travel to Islamabad on Monday (today) to meet the Prime Minister to “push the case for the rights of KP and secure our unpaid dues”.
Addressing a grand peace jirga at the Jamrud Sports Complex in Khyber, the chief minister said he would soon begin consultations with stakeholders across the province, starting with visits to the merged districts, before finalizing the date for a march to the federal capital.
The move comes amid a growing standoff between the federal and provincial governments over who authorized the evacuation of Tirah, after hundreds of families were forced to leave their homes over fears of planned military action.
While authorities initially maintained that the evacuations were carried out with the consent of all stakeholders, including local elders, the provincial government and the military, the issue became highly controversial after displaced families found themselves stranded in frigid, open-air conditions, with alleged mismanagement worsening their situation.
Earlier this week, the federal government insisted that the movement of Tirah residents was part of a routine seasonal migration and denied that a military operation was planned in the valley.
However, Afridi rejected this narrative, calling the official position a “joke” and saying the Center changed its stance only after international media highlighted the “real sufferings of the people of the valley”.
During the jirga, the chief minister asked participants if they would join him in a protest march in Islamabad to express their resentment over what he called the “atrocities” committed against the people of Tirah, their “forced displacement” and the government’s U-turn on the military operation.
He announced that a grand jirga would be convened soon. “We will assert at the grand jirga that only the people have the right to rule Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as they belong, and no decision taken behind closed doors in Islamabad will be acceptable anymore.”
Amid loud slogans from the crowd, Afridi said that “no power on earth could shake his confidence and his conscience could not be bought if he had the strong support of his own people.”
He alleged that plots were being hatched to either impose the governor’s rule in the province or have him disqualified through “concocted deals”, adding that efforts were also underway to “eliminate him if he did not submit to the narrative of his political rivals.”
“But I have firm faith in God and I am not afraid of anyone because I am a tribesman and I will never budge from our stated policy on militancy and military operations,” he said.
Responding to allegations of misuse of the Rs 4 billion allocated to displaced Tirah families, the chief minister said he would not hesitate to sanction even Rs 100 billion if necessary, saying the federal government had “reneged on its promises to provide a paltry amount of Rs 400,000” to the victims of previous military operations.
He promised “exemplary punishment” to anyone found guilty of irregularities in the use of relief funds.
Afridi also accused the federal government of discrimination against Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, saying: “We are considered second-class citizens. But I will continue to raise my voice against this injustice because, as a soldier of Imran Khan, I know how to guarantee our rights.”
The chief minister warned that the federal government’s handling of Tirah would lead to “a loss of people’s confidence in the security establishment”.
“We have been denouncing the presence of illegal militant groups in different parts of KP, especially Tirah, for a long time and reminding the federal government that militant activities have been increasing. But no one took our claims seriously as the situation gradually slipped out of everyone’s control,” he said.
He further said that people in tribal areas have always made sacrifices for the country and they would “dispel negative propaganda against them”.
On the same occasion, Afridi announced the creation of a provincial relief fund for the poor and needy, urging well-off citizens to contribute so that aid can be distributed during Ramazan.
He also condemned the terrorist attacks carried out in different parts of Balochistan on Saturday and expressed solidarity with the affected families, saying that the people of KP shared their grief and pain.
Earlier, provincial minister Meena Khan, MP Iqbal Afridi and MPs Abdul Ghani and Adnan Qadri also addressed the gathering, holding the federal government responsible for the hardships faced by the displaced families of Tirah.
Notably absent were members of the Tirah tribal jirga, who had previously negotiated the evacuation of families with provincial and security officials.
Meanwhile, elders of a tribal jirga on the Tirah issue announced their full solidarity, sympathy and full support to all the affected families who have been temporarily displaced.
The jirga organized by the Bara Political Alliance and the agenda of the national jirga were presented by the former President of the Bara Political Alliance, Haji Shireen Afridi.
Jirga participants raised their voices in favor of peace. The jirga leaders said the problems of Tirah victims are not limited to a single region or tribe, but it is a collective national problem.
They said any further delay in solving the problems of Tirah displaced people was unacceptable.
