PESHAWAR: Awami National Party provincial president Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has “practically ceased to exist”, describing the province as a ‘picture of administrative paralysis, insecurity and extreme governance failure’.

Addressing a protest demonstration at Peshtakhra Chowk organised on Monday by the ANP’s Khyber chapter against the ‘mistreatment’ of displaced residents of Tirah Valley, Mr Hussain said the affected people had been deprived of their homes, land and livelihoods.

“What kind of government abandons its own citizens to fend for themselves?” he asked, adding that the treatment of people in the chief minister’s home district was indicative of the situation in rest of the province.

He said registration points had become ‘centres of humiliation’ instead of rehabilitation and accused the provincial government of failing to provide relief to the displaced people. He alleged that Rs4 billion allocated for the rehabilitation of Tirah people had been lost to corruption.

Mr Hussain said resolving problems of the displaced population was the constitutional, legal and moral responsibility of the government, but the present provincial administration was continuously evading this duty. He alleged that political workers, social activists and public representatives who raised their voices for the rights of the displaced people were being attacked, harassed and silenced, which he termed a clear sign of ‘fascist-style governance’.

Expressing concern over the deteriorating security situation in the province, he said terror incidents had become a daily routine from Waziristan to Chitral, Bajaur, Bannu and Shangla. Referring to the recent bomb blast outside a police station in Bannu, which killed two civilians, including a child, and the killing of three policemen in an encounter in Shangla, he said these incidents were proof that law and order in the province had completely slipped out of control.

He said people were living in fear; and while police and security personnel were making sacrifices on the front lines, the government remained a silent spectator.

He further alleged that the provincial government had “put the entire province at stake for a single individual”, and that the protection of people’s lives, peace and livelihoods was no longer among the government’s priorities. He also held the federal government equally responsible, saying both the central and provincial governments were engaged in political point-scoring while the public continued to suffer.

Mr Hussain said ANP would continue its struggle on every forum for the rights of the Tirah people.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2026