LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has called upon the incumbent government to come out of the denial and accept the fact that the Kurram violence is not just a tribal dispute of land and water but the sectarianism and terrorism have complicated the situation further.

“Acknowledging the ideological links of the local militants across the border and the external factors trying to destabilise Pakistan, the federal government should have acted more swiftly,” says Mr Qureshi, who is currently incarcerated in the Kot Lakhpath jail, in an open letter.

He said the Kurram situation was not just a law and order issue that could be handled by the provincial government on its own. “Elderly dying due to lack of medicines and children due to shortage of milk and freezing conditions, violence leading to blockade of roads has evolved into a humanitarian crisis,” he lamented.

From the recent meeting of the army chief with the KP governor and chief minister in Peshawar, Mr Qureshi said one could deduce that the civilian and military leadership was not on the same page. The civilian dispensation preferred a political settlement, whereas the military leadership, learning from its bitter experience of the past and failed negotiations, had opted for a coercive approach.

The former foreign minister stated that the Parliament being a policy-making forum had abdicated its role by not discussing the delicate situation in Kurram.

Mr Qureshi said the question remained whether the Kurram violence could be resolved without aligning the country’s approach to external factors, ideological linkages to forces outside Pakistan and bitter experience of the past?

“If Afghan Taliban are not willing to act as neutral mediators, have we explored the possibility of genuine neutral mediators, who have a stake in the stability of the region,” he asked.

When the PTI was in government, the former foreign minister said, “We in the foreign office had established a forum called the “immediate neighbours” of Afghanistan and after consultations, agreed to adopt a regional approach to issues like terrorism, trade and connectivity.”

While restoring peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in general and Kurram in particular, the former foreign minister said Pakistan must remain cognizant of the fact that Delhi might be looking for opportunities to create a wedge between Islamabad and Kabul.

He warned that the meeting between Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri and Afghan interim foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was a major development, which should not be underestimated.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2025