Sohail Afridi Vows No Military Operation in KP as Long as He Is CM
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has said he will not allow any military operation in the province as long as he remains chief minister, asserting that his government will resist policies that he believes are against the interests of the people.
Addressing participants of a long march in Khyber district, Afridi said political negotiations held the previous day were aimed at pressuring the provincial government into accepting another military operation.
“I will not allow another military operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as long as I am chief minister,” he said, adding that he would never become part of a policy that he believes could further affect the people of the province.
The chief minister also criticized the displacement of residents of Tirah Valley during severe winter conditions. He questioned the federal government’s allocation of Rs4 million per family for the rehabilitation of tribal families affected by military operations.
Afridi said the KP government had allocated Rs21 billion for people displaced by military operations. Responding to criticism that the provincial government was not cooperating on security matters, he asked why peace had not been achieved in Balochistan despite cooperation from the provincial government there.
He further claimed that the policy being pursued was not genuinely aimed at establishing peace and stressed that the concerns of tribal communities could no longer be ignored.
The chief minister credited PTI founder Imran Khan with giving tribal communities greater recognition and dignity. He said the merger of the tribal districts with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was carried out in 2018, but the financial aspects of the merger had yet to be fully addressed.
Afridi also claimed that the federal government owes around Rs100 billion annually to the merged tribal districts.
Speaking about the ongoing long march, the chief minister said the participation of the people had been extraordinary. He said the march would proceed towards Swabi, where he would announce the next course of action.
Afridi said Imran Khan was fighting for the rights of the Pakistani people and pledged that he and his supporters would continue to play their part in what he described as a struggle for public rights.