Prof Ajmal Khan: Senator says dialogue will help bring the ex-VC back

At the meeting, JUI-F backed jirga was also asked to play a role in restoration of peace in the tribal areas.

SHABQADAR/ PESHAWAR:

Senator Saleh Shah believes Professor Ajmal Khan’s case, former vice-chancellor of Islamia College University who has been held captive by the Taliban for more than three years, will be sorted soon.

While talking to The Express Tribune after a meeting with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governor at Governor House on Tuesday, Senator Saleh Shah, who is from South Waziristan’s Mehsud area, hoped the issue would be resolved through dialogue. He said the Taliban presented their demands for Professor Khan’s release but so far the government has failed to fulfil them. The Peshawar High Court has also asked the government to solve the issue.



After reviewing the situation at the meeting, it was decided to continue concentrated efforts to ensure the safe recovery of Khan. The governor said that he appreciated all efforts being made to find Khan and it was tragic that families of educationists were suffering because of kidnappings.

Shah, a member of the Senate’s standing committee on States and Frontier Region was joined at the meeting by two parliamentarians from Waziristan, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) MNA Jamaluddin, Fata Additional Chief Secretary, Arbab Muhammad Arif, Provincial Secretary for Home and Tribal Affairs, Syed Akhtar Ali Shah and the political agent from South Waziristan Islamzeb Khan.

Peace talks were also discussed at the meeting. JUI-F backed jirga was also asked to play a role in restoration of peace in tribal areas. According to Shah, parliamentarians from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas had pledged full support to tribal jirga elders on peace talks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2013.