PESHAWAR: Awami National Party central president Aimal Wali Khan on Saturday warned that the escalating security crisis in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces threatened the country’s stability.

“If this situation persists, then we will risk losing KP and Balochistan,” Mr Aimal told a function arranged by the party to mark the death anniversaries of Bacha Khan and Abdul Wali Khan at Nishtar Hall here.

The ANP leader called for effective measures to address terrorism once and for all.

He said that it seemed that the government had bartered peace on the Pakhtun land for US dollars.

ANP leader calls for effective measures against terrorism

Mr Aimal said that the “trade-off,” which had cost Pakhtuns on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border dearly, should stop immediately.

He said that whether the government held talks with terrorists or ordered operations against them, the people no longer trusted both options for remaining their primary victims.

The ANP leader claimed that the government had lost its writ in more than half of the province.

He blamed the current security crisis in the country on the previous government’s decision to free 102 high-profile terrorists from captivity and wondered billions of rupees were spent on security operations to arrest those terrorists.

Mr Aimal said that in order to ensure its writ, the government had to fight against the same people again who were released earlier.

“The PTI government brought 40,000 terrorists back to our province,” he alleged.

He said the release of terrorists associated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban was a huge blunder.

The ANP leader criticised former ISI chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed’s visit to Kabul soon after the ouster of the Afghan government and former prime minister Imran Khan for declaring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a “martyr.”

He said that if the state was sincere in eliminating terrorism from the country, then the ANP and people would stand with it otherwise no one would support operations against terrorists.

Mr Aimal said that Pakistan fenced its border with Afghanistan to ensure security on its soil, so how it could claim that terrorists were coming in from Afghanistan.

He said that ANP leaders and workers rendered great sacrifices during the fight against terrorism between 2008 and 2013, but the powers-that-be imposed a pro-terrorist government in the province, which ruined every sector.

The ANP leader accused them of closing “political and democratic avenues” for his party to keep it out of parliament.

He said that the ANP always worked for democracy, peace and people’s development and would continue doing so.

Mr Aimal said that the war against terrorism displaced a large number of Pakhtuns and left scores missing.

He criticised the PTI government in the province for “failing to maintain law and order and ruining the health and education sectors.”

The ANP leader complained that the University of Peshawar, the oldest seat of higher education in the province, didn’t have funds to pay salaries to its employees.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2025