Worsening law and order: PTI MPA sees spillover of violence if corrective steps not taken

PESHAWAR: A ruling party lawmaker in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order in southern districts and said the violence could spread to Peshawar and Islamabad if militancy was not curbed.

Members from opposition benches also demanded that a truth and reconciliation commission should be formed that who had brought back militants from the neighbouring country and resettled them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and why the National Action Plan was not being implemented.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session, chaired by Speaker Babar Salim Swati, also passed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Brick Kiln Bill 2024 that would regularise the brick kilns and declare them an industry in the province.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA from Lakki Marwat Tariq Saeed on a point of order said that law and order in Lakki Marwat and other southern districts was deteriorating day by day. He said that the common people, police and government employees were not safe in the prevailing situation. “Even the peace-loving people are not safe in their homes in Lakki Marwat and other parts of southern districts where the government has almost lost its writ,” the PTI MPA said without blaming the provincial government but added that if proper and practical steps were not taken to curb the fresh wave of militancy it might be spread to Peshawar and Islamabad.

Pakistan People’s Party parliamentary party leader Ahmad Karim Kundi said that after the gory incident of Army Public School in Peshawar all the political parties and state institutions had carved out the National Action Plan against terrorists but unfortunately the plan was not fully implemented.

“At least we have to raise this question on the assembly floor today that why and who was not implementing the National Action Plan that was agreed upon 10 years back,” he said and added a truth and reconciliation commission should be formed that who had facilitated and brought back the militants and resettled them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Awami National Party MPA Nisar Baz Khan while condemning the terrorist attack on Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014 said that the report of judicial commission on APS tragedy was not made public.

He said that the parents of the slain students were asking the question of why and who had killed their children. The ANP MPA said that the terrorists had once again strengthened their network and activities in Bajaur, Tirah, Waziristan and southern districts of the province where the security forces and provincial government had failed to protect the lives and properties of the people.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs Rangiz Khan, Shafiullah Khan, Munir Laghmani and Provincial Minister Aftab Alam Advocate while debating on PTI protest at Islamabad D-Chowk on November 26 claimed that hundreds of their party workers were still missing while more than thousands PTI workers were languishing in different jails in Punjab and Islamabad. Aftab Alam said that the unconstitutional steps, social injustice, violence and fraudulent elections had led to the debacle of East Pakistan.

“The same practice is repeated in the present Pakistan and a popular and genuine leader of the people of Pakistan was put behind bars while ‘rejected’ people were given mandate through fraudulent ways and means,” he said and added that the law-enforcement agencies opened straight and indiscriminate fire on peaceful and unarmed protesters in Islamabad and Rawalpindi on November 26. The session was adjourned till December 28 afternoon.