ISLAMABAD: Assailing the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for not being able to fulfill promises it made before coming into power regarding elimination of terrorism, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani Monday condemned recent terrorist incidents in the militancy-hit province.
He was speaking on a motion in the Senate regarding two terrorist incidents that took place in KP on Sunday.
The militants yesterday shot dead a senior opposition leader, Mian Mushtaq of Awami National Party (ANP) along with two others in Peshawar hours after a bomb attack in Balochistan killed five.
Other Senators also called upon the federal and provincial governments to evolve a joint strategy to root out terrorism from the country.
Senator Rabbani said that PTI, during its election campaign, had declared that it would eliminate terrorism from the country after coming into power but unfortunately things have gone from bad to worse since it had taken control of the province.
He condemned the recent killings of political figures as well as of SP CID Chaudhry Aslam in terrorist attacks saying that it was unfortunate that the provincial government of KP was not willing to take responsibility for failing to curb terrorism.
The absence of officials from the funeral prayers of those being killed in the terrorist acts shows that the provincial government has no ownership towards this war, he emphasised.
Including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government at the centre in his criticism, Rabbani said claims made by the federal government of formulating an anti-terrorism policy could not materialise even after a lapse of more than seven months.
He said the government had prioritised dialogue with militants and the opposition parties backed them, but, now it was being told that banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was not ready for peace talks.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator demanded an in-camera session of the parliament to ascertain which factions of the militant group can be engaged in the dialogue process with the government.
Without naming Imran Khan’s PTI party, Senator Farhatullah Babar said that at a time when a national consensus was being developed against militancy, a single party shattered the whole consensus.
He said he was not disappointed with Chief Minister KP Pervez Khattak but with the ruling party of the province and its top leadership.
Senator Muzaffar Shah said the government should reconsider the whole situation besides taking parliamentarians into confidence about it.
Discussing the motion, Haji Adeel of Awami National Party (ANP) said the law and order in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was deteriorating which was evident from the recent terrorist attacks.
He said the ANP-led previous government was also confronted with the same problem but it fought bravely against the terrorists unlike the present regime.
Senator Afrasiab Khattak alleged that the grip of the provincial government over KP had weakened as terrorism, kidnapping for ransom and extortion incidents were on the rise.
He said that it was the provincial government’s responsibility to maintain law and order, adding that if PTI chief Imran Khan thinks that he was disappointed with the chief minister, he should have asked for his resignation.
Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said the PTI had failed to make KP an exemplary province as it had no strategy to deal with terrorism.
He urged the federal as well as the provincial government to sit together and find out a solution for the problem.