CHARSADDA: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Tuesday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had no right to stay in government if it did not prioritize the issues facing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Addressing a well-attended gathering in Sherpao village to commemorate the 51th death anniversary of his elder brother Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherpao Shaheed, he said it was the primary responsibility of the provincial government to maintain law and order.
However, he also asked the federal government to give a helping hand to the province. He also condemned the recent suicide attack in Islamabad.Paying glowing tribute to Shaheed-e-Watan, Aftab Sherpao recalled that Hayat Sherpao worked against all odds and helped the peasants, farmers and the people from the downtrodden segments of the society to challenge the powers of the status quo.
“He was a challenger to the status quo forces,” the veteran politician remarked, urging the youth to draw inspiration from the struggle and sacrifices of the martyred leader. “He was a legend and the first political martyr of this soil. He had the vision to change the course of history. The forces inimical to his vision and foresight martyred him, thinking they could eliminate his vision and remove the love of people from their hearts but they were mistaken. Despite his young age, he proved his mettle and challenged the colonial-era stereotype of the tribal warrior. He stood for social justice and constitutional and social rights for all, breaking all barriers,” he added.
Turning to political developments and other issues bedeviling the country, Sherpao said that terrorism was the biggest challenge Pakistan was facing at this critical juncture of its history. He said that 2025 had proved to be the deadliest in terms of casualties for security forces and law-enforcement personnel. However, he lamented that the provincial government was ignoring this issue.
He added that the PTI was building its own narrative on terrorism. “There are two narratives on this issue,” he remarked. “There is a lack of a unified narrative which was one of the main reasons hampering efforts to eradicate terrorism. All state organs should be on the same page to defeat the terrorists and restore durable peace,” he suggested.
Commenting on the Tirah situation, Sherpao said the people of the remote valley, including women, children and the elderly, went through inconvenience in the harsh winter but the provincial government remained indifferent to their sufferings and made no arrangements which further antagonized the local population. “The PTI government politicized this issue. The displaced families should be sent home with dignity. The government did not provide them relief,” he said, adding that PTI rulers ignored the problems facing the people. Advocating for the implementation of the China model for development, he said the people in the country were getting frustrated with each passing day.
He explained that the China model envisaged the development of underdeveloped areas whereas the exact reverse of this was taking place in Pakistan, where Punjab was getting preferential treatment.
On PTI’s recent strike, he commented that it was a failed attempt and the ruling party was unable to drum up support for its February 8 protest. He elaborated that staging protests and sit-ins did not serve any purpose and instead overshadowed the issues facing the people. He said the government was not supposed to stage protests at the expense of the taxpayers’ money for its vested interest. He said PTI would be unable to secure the release of their incarcerated leader through street agitation.
Sherpao advised the political forces to counter the PTI politically. He said PTI had been ruling KP for the third straight term, but failed to deliver on its pledges. The QWP leader warned against undoing the 18th Amendment in a bid to reduce the shares of the provinces under the National Finance Commission Award, saying that his party would resist the proposed 28th Amendment with full force.
He said the people were disenchanted with the PTI government due to its flawed policies undermining all sectors, including health and education.He said the provincial government was least bothered to safeguard provincial rights and secure the arrears of KP from the centre. He said no development had taken place in KP over the last 13 years.
Corruption, he said, had become institutionalized in KP. “We cannot sustain if the poor governance and mismanagement continue unabated. There must be an end to this,” urging the youth not to lose hope and take inspiration from the Shaheed leader, who sacrificed his life for peace, development and prosperity of his motherland.
Focusing on Afghanistan, he recalled that the Afghan Taliban had pledged under the Doha Agreement that the Afghan soil would not be used for terrorism against others, however, the interim Afghan government had done practically nothing to honour this pledge.He said the Doha Agreement was meant to ensure the withdrawal of the foreign troops from the landlocked country and to bring stability to the region but that did not happen.
“Pakistan’s grievances are valid. Being a neighbouring country, we thought we would achieve peace in the wake of the foreign forces pullout from Afghanistan but the cross-border terrorism is continuing unhindered. Pakistani security forces personnel are getting martyred every day in acts of terrorism along the Pak-Afghan border areas and elsewhere in the country,” he said, calling upon the interim Afghan government to take solid steps to prevent the cross-border movement of terror groups.
Turning to the plight of the Afghan families leaving for their homeland, he said that a vast majority had gone back to Afghanistan while the rest should be facilitated to ensure their dignified return to their own country.
He clarified that though Islamabad had grievances against Kabul, they had sympathies for the returning Afghan families who must not suffer, asking the government to facilitate them.
He called for reopening the Torkham border to facilitate the movement of the people who wanted to seek medical treatment in Pakistan. “The government should ease access for the Afghan patients,” he said. He maintained that the closure of the Pak-Afghan border was detrimental to mutual trade.
