KP Assembly demands halt to ‘anti-Pakhtuns campaign’

PESHAWAR/MARDAN/CHARSADDA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed a unanimous resolution on Monday against the alleged harassment of Pakhtuns in Punjab and other provinces, demanding immediate halt to the 'anti-Pakhtun' campaign.

Speaking on the resolution moved by the Sahibzada Sanaullah of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the members warned of severe repercussions if the move was not stopped. 

The resolution said Pakhtuns settled in Punjab, Sindh and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) were being harassed and subjected to indiscrimination and prejudice. "Such a treatment would lead to hatred and mistrust, therefore, this House recommends to the federal government to take serious notice of the issue and stop the harassment of Pakhtuns in Punjab and release forthwith the arrested people," it stated.  

On a call attention notice, Awami National Party parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said Pakhtuns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata were badly hit by the militancy and instead of recognising their sacrifices, they were being harassed in Punjab and Sindh. 

He said that different banned organisations had 71 centres only in Lahore and the trainers and mentors of suicide bombers also belonged to Punjab but instead of taking action against them Pakhtuns were targeted and dubbed as terrorists. 

The ANP leader said the federal government should take notice of the issue or else the Pakhtuns would be compelled to retaliate and the consequences would be bad for the federation. 

Speaking on the resolution, Nighat Orakzai and Fakhre Azam of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rahman, ANP's Syed Jaffar Shah, Shah Farman and Shaukat Yusufzai of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Bakht Baidar of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Jamaat-e-Islami's Inayatullah, Muhammad Ali and Aizazul Mulk said the military operation against terrorists and their facilitators should not be turned into 'anti-Pakhtun' drive as Pakhtuns were doing businesses and hard labour to earn a living in various cities of the country. 

The Punjab government should eliminate terrorists by destroying their nurseries instead of targeting innocent Pakhtuns, they added.  They said the harassment and arrests of people from KP was a violation of the Constitution's articles 8 to 28 and warned of dire consequences if the drive was not stopped forthwith. 

They said senior officers from Punjab including IGP, chief secretary, secretaries, district police officers and deputy commissioners were serving in the province and people tolerated them but on the other hand Pakhtuns were not allowed to do business in other provinces. They also complained against blocking of the computerised national identity cards (CNICs) of Pakhtuns and threatened to organise a sit-in by all the MPAs in Islamabad if the issue was not resolved. 

Raja Faisal Zaman and Rashad Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also supported the resolution and suggested that delegation of the parliamentary leaders and government representative should meet Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to know about the factual situation and remove the misunderstandings. 

Earlier, the assembly passed the KP Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak here in a statement condemned the alleged racial profiling of the Pakhtuns and unjust behavior of the Punjab government towards them.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has urged the Punjab government to desist from harassing Pakhtuns, warning that such negative policies would entail negative repercussions. 

Addressing a news conference here on Monday, PPP provincial president Humayun Khan said his party would protest against the government of Punjab in its forthcoming All Parties Conference (APC) on March 4 and also take up the issue on the floor of the House. 

According to a report from Mardan PPP Senior Vice-President Senator Khanzada Khan has condemned the alleged harassment of the Pakhtuns in Punjab.  According to a report from Charsadda, Awami National Party General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Monday asked the Punjab government to stop harassing Pakhtuns as it would create mistrust among the people of the two provinces.Talking to reporters here, he said targeting Pakhtuns would create hatred among the people and damage national unity.   Meanwhile, PPP Fata chapter staged protest outside the Press Club on Monday, urging the federal and Punjab governments to stop harassing the Pakhtuns and people from the tribal areas.