PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday witnessed a heated debate over a surge in incidents of terrorism and growing insecurity of people in the province, especially the residents of merged tribal districts.

Members of both treasury and opposition benches urged the chair to form a house committee to “tackle the situation before it spins out of control.”

MPA Mohammad Idrees Khan presided over the session.

The debate on the poor law and order situation was started by MPA of the opposition ANP Arbab Usman Khan, who insisted that tribal districts had recorded a sharp increase in terrorist incidents lately.

Warn if corrective steps not taken, situation will spin out of control

“Some alarming and serious issues have been emerging in the merged tribal districts and it seems there is no writ of the state,” he said, adding the merged region was destroyed.

Mr Khan urged the chair to summon a multi-party conference on insecurity among the people of merged areas to tell them that they’re not alone in this crisis-like situation and instead, the people of the rest of the province stood by them.

Parliamentary leader of the opposition PPP Ahmad Kareem Kundi informed the house that not only was law and order deteriorating in tribal districts but people from South Waziristan to Chitral were also feeling insecure.

“I have reached the conclusion that youths of the province are facing insecurity and are angry over terror incidents,” he said.

Mr Kundi said that development projects and other government activities were of no use if protection of public life and property was not ensured.

He said it would take several days for him to inform the house of the worsening law and order situation in Dera Ismail Khan, the native town of Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and that the situation was no different in other districts.

MPA from Kurram tribal district Ali Hadi said that killing of innocent civilians by unidentified people had become the order of the day.

He said that many civilians had been killed in the last few months in Kurram but authorities had failed to punish culprits.

Special assistant to the chief minister on communication and works Mohammad Sohail Afridi said a war had been imposed on the merged tribal districts for two decades.

“The people of merged areas have been suffering due to the wrong decisions of authorities,” he said.

Mr Afridi said serious efforts were needed to address militancy in the region.

He also urged the chair to form a house committee comprising members from both treasury and opposition benches to work out a strategy in this respect and convey a strong message to decision-makers and warned if that didn’t happen, violence in Pakhtun regions would continue.

Earlier, the house approved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Establishment of District Development Advisory Committee (Amendment) Bill, 2024, paving the way for MNAs heading such committees in the province.

The amended law states, “In sub-section (1) in Clause (a) before the words “Provincial Assembly”, the words “National Assembly and” shall be inserted.”

The members passed the bill by a majority vote. The opposition rejected it, insisting that it was the right of MPAs to lead DDACs.

The bill’s “statement of objects and reasons” said, “It is desirable to broaden the representation of the DDCA by including members of National Assembly and designating them as chairman, alongside members of provincial assembly where required and deemed appropriate.”

The assembly also approved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government Rest Houses and Tourism Properties (Development, Management and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

The chair later adjourned the sitting until Friday.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2024