PM seeks to quell talk of Centre-K-P confrontation

Shehbaz says terrorism will never defeat Pakistan

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday made it clear that the impression of any confrontation between the federal government and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) was incorrect, but said that attempts had been made to aggravate the situation through lies and propaganda.

Addressing participants from K-P at a national workshop, Shehbaz delivered a wide-ranging speech focusing on terrorism, federal-provincial relations and national development, stressing that Pakistan's real progress was impossible unless all four provinces advanced together.

He said lies and propaganda on social media were poisoning the minds of the youth, to the extent that even the great sacrifices of martyrs were being insulted, echoing the language of the enemy across the border.

Reiterating the state's resolve, Shehbaz said the nation would not rest until terrorism was completely eliminated. Describing K-P as an extremely important and strategic province, he said its people had made unparalleled sacrifices in the war against terrorism.

He said that after the Afghan war, millions of Afghan refugees were hosted by the people of K-P as a sense of duty. However, he added, this also led to the emergence of the Kalashnikov culture and terrorism in the country, resulting in the martyrdom of thousands of innocent civilians.

"After the APS [Army Public School] tragedy [in December 2014], a unanimous decision was taken that there would be no distinction between good and bad Taliban," the prime minister told the participants.

He said terrorism was brought under control after the sacrifices of more than 100,000 soldiers, officers and civilians, but due to certain wrong decisions taken after 2018, the menace re-emerged, damaging national development.

Shehbaz vowed that terrorism would not be allowed to defeat Pakistan, stressing that the nation would continue its fight until all terrorist elements were eliminated. He warned that appeasement and ambiguity in the past had already cost the country dearly.

Responding to a question on Afghanistan, the prime minister said talks were held with the Afghan interim government in Doha and elsewhere, but Pakistan's concerns were not taken seriously by the regime in Kabul.

"Terrorism against Pakistan continued from Afghan soil, forcing Pakistan to take tough decisions," he said, adding that it was now up to the Afghan interim government to decide whether it wanted to live as a peaceful neighbour.

Referring again to Centre-K-P relations, the prime minister said that over the past 15 years, around Rs800 billion had been provided to the province to combat terrorism, yet the level of development seen in other provinces was not visible there.

He recalled that under the 2010 National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, Punjab gave 1% from its share to K-P to help it confront terrorism, while additional resources were also provided for Balochistan.

He said Rs400 billion had been allocated for Balochistan's 'bloody highway', the federal government had provided Rs50 billion for the solar tube-wells project for farmers, and a network of Danish schools was being established in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The prime minister said that in response to India's aggression on May 6, Pakistan mounted a strong defence and shot down seven enemy fighter jets, adding that under the leadership of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the enemy was taught a lesson it would always remember.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)