PESHAWAR: A jirga at the Chief Minister’s House here on Saturday condemned civilian casualties, especially of women, children and the elderly, in drone strikes and military operations in the province and urged authorities to hold dialogue with all stakeholders to ensure peace and stability.

The participants, including representatives from the merged tribal districts as well as current and former parliamentarians, held detailed consultations on formulating a joint strategy for restoration of peace in the region.

Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi, who presided over the meeting, said the jirga had decided to give dialogue another chance but it warned the failure of talks would lead to a march on Islamabad.

He complained that 23 major and over 14,000 intelligence-based minor operations had been carried out in the province, including tribal districts, but peace was still elusive.

CM complains peace elusive in tribal districts despite security operations

“They didn’t want peace in this region,” he said, without elaborating.

Mr Afridi claimed that if all necessary resources were handed over to him, he would ensure peace within 100 days.

He said that the jirga was called to decide the future course of action against collateral damage in drone strikes and military operations, as innocent children, women and the elderly people, too, were killed.

“With drone attacks happening since 2007, we have been constantly speaking against them due to collateral damage, but now is the time to take practical steps to prevent civilian casualties,” he said.

The chief minister said that he was empowered by the Constitution to run the affairs of the province but he couldn’t “do any thing if somebody is forcibly implementing the decisions taken behind closed doors”.

Without naming anyone, Mr Afridi said “they” wanted to provoke youngsters into taking the law into their own hands.

He urged youth to protest only as allowed by the Constitution and the law.

“If somebody is bent upon flouting the law, then we will defend ourselves. I don’t fear anyone. I have been and will remain against such elements,” he said.

The chief minister said that the Action in Aid of Civil Power Ordinance was “bulldozed” in the first cabinet meeting but the problem was that under the same law, around 970 militants had been kept in detention centres.

He said that he had written several letters to authorities to seek details of militants as if the appeal against Action in Aid of Civil Power Ordinance was withdrawn by his government, all those detention centres would be declared sub-jails.

“Nobody knows the whereabouts of those 970 militants,” he said.

Mr Afridi said that if the provincial government withdrew the appeal against Action in Aid of Civil Power Ordinance, the militants would be released, allowing rivals to accuse him of setting ‘his friends’ free.

He said that if the list of detainees was handed over to him, he would be in a position to confirm their identity and point out the missing ones.

The chief minister also condemned the alleged mistreatment of tribal elders and parliamentarians who participated in the jirga.

“Such conduct fuels hatred and makes people take up arms against authorities, undermining peace,” he said.

Mr Afridi also said that tribal areas were merged with KP administratively but the promises made by authorities to residents were never fulfilled.

He said that under the promised one per cent share in the federal divisible pool, to be contributed by all provinces following the Fata-KP merger, the merged tribal districts were to receive Rs420 billion annually. However, the federal government released just Rs168 billion out of Rs800 billion due funds in the last eight years,” he said.

“They [Centre] distribute the amount among themselves but do not release it for the merged tribal districts. This jirga will pursue this case as well,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2026