BARA: Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi on Monday assured all possible facilities to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Tirah Valley, saying the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would not abandon the affected population.
He gave the assurance during a visit to the registration centre established for the displaced people of Tirah Valley in Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district. The chief minister met displaced families, listened to their grievances and issued on-the-spot directives to the concerned officials for their immediate resolution.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the tribal people had safeguarded the country’s borders for nearly 70 years without any formal remuneration, but lamented that the state had failed to fulfil the promises made to them. The chief minister maintained that despite repeated objections, militants were resettled after the regime change — end of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government led by Imran Khan — , and today the consequences of those decisions were being borne by innocent civilians who were being forcibly displaced from their native areas. He said the provincial government was not taken into confidence on major decisions. The chief minister emphasised that tribal districts could not be treated as experimental grounds where every new government comes and tests fresh policies. “These policies failed in the past, are failing today and will fail in the future as well,” he said, adding that the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa government would not become part of any such failed strategy. He said no policy could succeed without public support. Sohail Afridi said that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, a chief minister had been elected from a tribal district, a fact that certain elements were unable to accept.
