PESHAWAR: Officials on Monday disclosed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was home to around 4,000 terrorists, mostly based in the merged tribal districts.

The disclosure was made during the second meeting of the special parliamentary committee on security here.

Senior government officials, including the chief secretary, the additional chief secretary (home) and the inspector general of police, briefed lawmakers on the current law and order situation in the province.

A lawmaker, who attended the meeting, told Dawn that most committee members complained about a “huge trust deficit” among people and legislators about the past and current security operations in the province.

Special parliamentary panel on security holds second meeting

They wondered how terrorists returned after being ousted through military operations.

The lawmakers said all stakeholders should be taken on board before the launch of any security operation to address any “trust deficit”.

The committee members favoured Bajaur-like military operations in other tribal districts as well. They, however, noted the Bajaur operation had certain “loopholes” that should be removed before such offensives were carried out anywhere else in the province.

Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Babar Saleem Swati chaired the meeting.

The government was represented by local government minister Meena Khan Afridi, housing minister Dr Amjid and MPAs Nazir Abbasi, Akbar Ayub, Anwar Khan, Anwarzaib, Dr Hameed, Naik Mohammad and others.

The opposition lawmakers, who attended the meeting, included Leader of the Opposition Dr Ibadullah, JUI-F parliamentary leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman, PPP MPA Ahmad Karim Kundi, PML-N MPA Jalal Khan and others.

The lawmakers discussed the current security situation in detail in light of the briefings from the chief secretary, ACS (home) and IGP.

Local government minister Meena Khan Afridi later told Dawn that all efforts would be made to ensure normalcy in the province.

“We are making efforts to bring all political parties to the same page for a collective decision pertaining to the restoration of peace in the province,” he said.

The minister said the formation of the special parliamentary committee on security and request to the leadership of other political parties to get united for effective response to security issues had shown the seriousness of the provincial government.

He suggested that authorities sit down with stakeholders to decide a joint action plan prior to the launch of any military operation against terrorists.

During the parliamentary committee’s first meeting, participants expressed commitment to taking ownership of the entire process but asked the treasury to take the lead for being in power.

They had said the opposition members wanted to know how far the government could go for maintaining law and order in the province.

The committee was formed on Sept 8 during a provincial assembly session after the conclusion of discussion on the law and order situation in the province. The house was told that the committee would be briefed by the officials involved in operations against terrorists in the province and would decide its terms of reference for discussing ways for restoration of peace.

Also in the previous meeting, both the treasury and opposition benches vowed to sincerely work for peace, with the chief minister wanting consensus to be developed for action.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2025