QUETTA: Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai said on Monday that Pakhtun leaders of the country could resolve all issues with Afghanistan and restore peaceful relations if the government gave them the mandate and powers to hold negotiations with the Afghan leadership and ensured that there would be no interference in the affairs of the war-torn country.

Addressing a public meeting held at the Sadiq Shaheed Football ground here in connection with the Chehlum of the people who died in the Aug 8 suicide bombing in Quetta, he said Pakhtuns were the biggest victim of political disturbances in the region over the past 40 years.

He claimed that over 100,000 Pakhtuns, including a number of tribal elders, had been killed at the hands of militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during this period, adding that their only sin was that they were peace-loving people and raised their voice against militants.

He said that now the Pakhtun leaders had decided to launch a joint struggle for bringing peace to the region and for the purpose they would ask the government to give them the mandate to hold talks with the Afghan leadership.

Besides himself, Mr Achakzai presented names of three other Pakhtun leaders — Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Ahmad Sherpao and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman — who he claimed could resolve all disputes with Afghanistan.

All these leaders, he said, had decided to launch joint efforts to save Pakhtuns from complete disaster. “We will not allow further bloodshed of Pakhtuns,” he added.

Mr Achakzai said a dangerous game was being played in the region and the Pakhtun leadership needed to understand that their people were the biggest victim of it.

The PkMAP chief said that only a democratic system could save Pakistan and make it a strong and stable country. The politics of sit-ins and protest would weaken the country, he said, adding that what the country needed to prosper was peace.

He said his party believed that only by following democratic principles the country could achieve its economic goals. The PkMAP would always support democratic process and resist any move against it, he added.

He said the federation of Pakistan could be strengthened only by accepting the rights of all federating units and by giving them their due share. Unjust distribution of resources created misunderstandings among the federating units, he said and called upon all political forces to understand each others’ points of views.

Talking about the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by US forces in a raid in Abbottabad in 2011, the PkMAP chief said that successive governments in Pakistan had failed to eliminate foreign terrorists involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan and other countries.

He paid tribute to lawyers and other people who lost their lives in the Aug 8 suicide bombing. He criticised security forces for not arresting elements behind the massacre of lawyers.

He also called for measures which could prevent such attacks in future.

Senator Usman Kakar, Nawab Ayaz Khan Jogezai, Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, Sardar Raza Mohammad Bareach, Dr Lal Mohammad Kakar and Nasarullah Zerey also spoke.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2016