LOWER DIR: Former Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is staring into a financial and administrative crisis.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday he said: “For the past two weeks the province is running without a cabinet and is at the mercy of bureaucracy alone, which is extremely alarming.”

He criticised the chief minister for making political remarks against a party president while standing in Charsadda, saying such behaviour fuels political intolerance and accelerates institutional decay.

Mr Haq said a wave of inflation had crippled life across the country as the price of roti had crossed Rs30, while sugar, tomatoes and other food items had gone beyond the reach of the common man. He urged the federal and provincial governments to take concrete steps to provide relief to citizens instead of engaging in political point-scoring.

Replying to a question, Mr Haq said that the chief minister and PTI leaders enjoyed moral and political rights to meet former prime minister Imran Khan in jail, and preventing such a meeting was undemocratic and unethical. Such actions, he warned would only deepen the province’s internal problems.

Referring to former senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, Mr Haq said he had left Jamaat-i-Islami in haste and expressed the hope that he would soon rejoin the party.

Commenting on the prime minister’s recent foreign visit, Mr Haq said it was “ridiculous and regretful” that the premier had to salute the US president at Sharm El-Sheikh and declare him worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

“If Donald Trump can be given a peace award, then Hulegu Khan, Genghis Khan and Yazid also qualify for it,” he remarked. He said calling a person, whose hands are drenched in the blood of thousands of Palestinians, a champion of peace was an insult to history and humanity.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2025