LANDI KOTAL: Curfew was imposed in parts of Jamrud and Landi Kotal on Thursday when President Mamnoon Hussain was performing the opening ceremony of the yet to be completed Peshawar-Torkhum Highway.
Supplies of all types of goods to Afghanistan via Torkham border also remained suspended during the day long visit of the president to Khyber Agency as Peshawar-Landi Kotal road was closed to traffic for over six hours.
Local administration had made announcements through loudspeakers at mosques, asking local residents to stay at homes and keep all the business centres shut during the visit, which was kept secret till Wednesday evening.
President Mamnoon Hussain addressed a tribal jirga in Landi Kotal where only selected pro-administration elders were invited. Local political leadership and members of the civil society were not invited to the jirga while local journalists were also not allowed to cover the event.
The activists of Fata Siyasi Ittehad held a news conference at Landi Kotal Press Club immediately after the president left for Islamabad.
Speaking on the occasion, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Zar Noor Afridi termed the visit a big disappointment, saying the president did not announce any mega development project for Khyber Agency. He also didn’t say anything about the much desired change in the existing administrative system of Fata, he added.
Mr Afridi said that local administration and security officials in fact made the president ‘hostage’ during his entire visit as he was not provided an opportunity to meet and speak with ordinary people of the area.
Pakistan People’s Party Khyber chapter president Hazrat Wali said on the occasion that there was no mention of the miseries of displaced families of Khyber Agency in the speech of president and he also failed to announce a rehabilitation package for the returning IDPs.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Abdur Raziq Shinwari said that ignoring local political leadership during the president visit was tantamount to further strengthening of the existing system and depriving the people of Fata of their basic constitutional rights.
Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2015
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