PESHAWAR - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to hold dialogue with Pashtun Tahafuz Movement(PTM) and address problems of Pashtun community within the ambit of the Constitution and law of the land after evolving consensus of all the political parties.
This was stated by Ajmal Wazir spokesman for the provincial government on merged districts after a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mehmood Khan with a tribal Jirga, constituted to address the problems of the Pashtun community.
The meeting was attended by Senators from the erstwhile Fata region Haji Momin Khan Afridi, Hidyatullah Khan, Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Sajjad Hussain Tori, Shamim Afridi and Taj Muhammad Afridi and MNAs from the former FATA region including Gul Zafar Khan, Muhammad Iqbal Khan Afridi, Munir Khan Aurakzai, Sajid Hussain Tori, Jawad Hussain and Mufti Abdul Shakoor.
Ajmal Wazir said that the tribal region had been neglected for the past 70 years but now the PTI government wanted to eradicate its sense of deprivation through positive overtures and resolve all outstanding problems being faced by tribal people in line with vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The government, he said has constituted an Advisory Committee representing elected members of all the main political parties of the country to hold talks with PTM and resolve the problems related to FATA.
During the meeting on Wednesday it was decided to send a formal invitation to the PTM leadership for holding dialogue on March 26 as the government wanted to settle all the problems through peaceful means, Ajmal Wazir said.
He said that merger of FATA into KP would be completed in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan by talking all political entities on board. “Therefore, we invite the leadership of PTM for talks”, he said.
The invitation letter duly signed by members of the Advisory Committee has been sent to the PTM leaders.
“We hope the PTM leadership would respond positively to the invitation of the Jirga and ensure their participation in meeting,” he said.
To a question: Ajmal Wazir said that “we are on one page for resolution of problems of the merged areas and today’s meeting also expressed the resolve to take all the decisions with mutual consensus”.
Addressing a press conference later, Ajmal Wazir said the Development and Redressal Committee has invited leadership of Pakhtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) on March 26 in Peshawar for a Jirga.
He said the committee comprising MNAs, Senators and public representatives from tribal districts have unanimously decided to hold a meeting with PTM to resolve all issues related to merged districts in consultation with all stakeholders to redress the decades’ old deprivation of tribal people.
He said as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to take all stakeholder on board on every issue, the committee has invited PTM leadership for a meeting and informed that the government wanted to negotiate with them on their just demands. He said a formal invitation is being forwarded to PTM leadership for Jirga to be held on March 26 at Civil Officers’ Mess here. Ajmal Wazir hoped that PTM leadership would not turn down the invitation and attend the meeting.