PESHAWAR, July 20: Accusing the secret agencies of creating law and order situation in the Federally Administered Tribal areas (Fata), Awami National Party has asked the federal government to rein in the intelligence agencies to control the soaring militancy in the region.
“The people of tribal areas have been bearing the brunt of the ill-directed and flawed policies of the federal government,” said Abdul Lateef Afridi, ANP in-charge of tribal areas, at a news briefing after chairing a meeting of party Fata chapter meeting at Bacha Khan Markaz here on Sunday.
He added that on one hand tribal people lived under the constant fear of attacks by the Nato and US forces while on the other hand the secret agencies were fanning unrest there.
Mr Afridi, who is also president of Peshawar High Court Bar Association, said that Pakistan's continuous interference in affairs of the neighbouring Afghanistan coupled with its association with the so-called Taliban had imposed a dangerous war on the tribal population.
“The forces which supported Taliban in their fight against the Americans provided an opportunity to the United States to flex its muscles for launching an attack on the tribal areas,” he added.
He said that peace would remain elusive in the country and NWFP unless the government changed its existing Afghan policy. Afridi claimed that during a recent trip to Islamabad, a US general had provided him bundles of documentary proofs of militant infiltration from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
He said the world was looking towards the tribal areas with anxiety just because those areas were being used as sanctuaries and training grounds for Al Qaeda and Taliban who were being pushed into Afghanistan to fight against the Nato and Afghan forces there.
The tribal people, he said, had lost confidence in the government of Pakistan and the only way to restore their confidence was to implement reforms there.
He said the people had pinned hopes on the PPP, PML-N and ANP coalition government in the centre, but all their hopes had been diminished because the army was still running the government.
The elected prime minister, he added, had little authority and the real power still rested with the military. About the threats by Baitullah Mehsud, chief of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, to ANP-led NWFP government to resign within five days, he said that his party was committed to bringing peace through dialogues and would never take dictates from anyone.The ANP would not resign and would rather pursue efforts aiming to establish peace in the province, he said.
