SWAT: Pakhtunkhwa National Awami Party, a breakaway faction of PkMAP, has strongly condemned the arrest of the party workers, including students, during a crackdown in Malakand division to prevent them from participating in the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement’s jirga in Khyber district, and demanded their immediate release.

Speaking at a news conference at the Swat Press Club here on Sunday, party’s co-chairman Mukhtiar Yousafzai also condemned the burning of camps and arrests of PTM members during the Khyber jirga, claiming that such actions were unconstitutional and illegal.

Party’s general secretary Khurshid Kakaji, provincial secretary Umar Ali Khan, central secretaries Shah Rome Khan and Bacha Gul, district secretary Ali Namdar Advocate and others were also present.

“The Pakhtun nation has been resolving its issues through jirgas for centuries, but denying them their constitutional and legal rights will have serious consequences. The responsibility for these outcomes will lie with the government and the administration,” he warned.

He argued that since the establishment of Pakistan, instead of being run as a federal, welfare, and democratic state, the Constitution had been disregarded, democracy undermined, and the various ethnic groups had been mistreated. “About 800 Pakhtuns were martyred by the state during the Babra massacre,” he noted, adding that Bengalis, despite their significant role in the creation of Pakistan, also suffered immense losses, with millions martyred, leading to the breakup of the country. “Despite this grave loss, old policies continue in the country. Rather than becoming a welfare and democratic state, Pakistan has been turned into a security state,” he remarked.

Mr Yousafzai emphasised: “We have no intention of harming Pakistan; we simply seek our rights according to the Constitution and law,” he asserted.

He said the arrest of the party’s provincial leadership led students to stage a peaceful protest inside the Malakand University campus. “However, the Lower Dir police arrested 16 students and charged them with serious offences.”

“The chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has labelled those raising their voice for their rights as enemies of the state. This marginalisation of the Pakhtuns must end,” he stated. He also criticised the federal government for ‘denying’ the Pakhtuns their due rights.

He clarified that those demanding their rights were not the enemies of the state; rather, “it were those who ran the country on the orders of security agencies and blocked constitutional and legal processes”. “We demand the release of our youth and strongly condemn the incident of burning of the Pakhtun jirga camps and firing on them in Khyber,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2024