Daily Times

In worrying development, the Khyher Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police have issued arrest warrants for senior members of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). Among those targeted are the group’s leader Manzoor Pashteen, MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar along with a handful of others; including Fazal Advocate whose son was killed in the Army Public School (APS) attack.

This is not the first time that the PTM has been pressured. At the beginning of the year the young ethnic Pashtuns engaged in a long march from Waziristan to Islamabad to call for an end to the systematic and decades’-long campaign that has been waged against this community. Their only demand was and remains the fulfilment of their constitutional rights. Which is another way calling for justice. Since then, the PTM have had to fend off baseless allegations that they are on the payroll of hostile intelligence agencies; namely, India’s RAW and Afghanistan’s NDS. As part of a manufactured policy to discredit the group and drown out their legitimate grievances.

Yet in the midst of all this, the PTM found an ally in Imran Khan. Indeed, during the elections, the latter even refrained from fielding PTI candidates in areas where the PTM were contesting. But perhaps more importantly, even before being crowned Prime Minister, Khan agreed to personally plead their case before the COAS; while cautioning against ‘anti-state’ rhetoric. That members of the PTM have now been declared proclaimed offenders despite their not being informed of their involvement in a police case raises important questions.

Some pundits see the timing of the arrest warrants as suspect; coming as it did on the very day that a PTM delegation had met with the provincial governor. The fear is that this may be intended to send a strong message to PM Khan to remain within his limits. Be that as it may, it most definitely undermines long-held claims that the KP police force is the only de-politicised one in the country. And then there are the potential implications for the FATA-merger.

It is hoped that the PTI government gets to the bottom of the matter at the earliest. This is not to give the PTM an entirely clean chit. For if did hold a rally without first obtaining the required Non-Objection Certificate (NOC), it must explain itself. However, even if this were the case it could have been better dealt with by approaching the KP Chief Minister. Naturally, rule of law must apply to everyone. But when a particular group has had their fundamental rights routinely violated by various institutions, a trust deficit exists. Whereas the young PTM leaders and the Pakistani state are on the same side. For the ethnic Pashtuns have also been thrust on to the frontlines of the someone else’s war. And many of those against whom an FIR has been registered have suffered immensely at militant hands. They do not need to endure more brutality.

In short, the entire misstep has served to put the question of Pashtun rights firmly under the spotlight once more. And we are optimistic that this is where it will stay.  *

Published in Daily Times, September 16^th 2018.