Daily Times

The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) rightly speaks about the hardships faced by  the Pashtun people of the tribal areas, said Imran Khan on Friday.

He further said that the way they are asking for it is not right.

The premier while addressing the public in Orakzai  said that the PTM has been repeating the same demands which he had made in the past 15 years.

Imran further acknowledged that the Pashtun people had to face difficulties during the counter terrorism operations and many had to migrate to other areas and “when there is a war, innocents are killed.”

Imran said, “how will it benefit Pakistan and the tribal areas [for PTM] to turn people who have been through pain against their army and raise slogans like this?”

The prime minister said he has vehemently spoken about the “difficult times” experienced by the residents of tribal areas, but “today we have to think how we will move forward.”

He further added that the biggest challenges were finding ways to improve people’s lives and provide them with education so they can rise in the society.

“To only incite people by rubbing salt into their wounds regarding the past oppression and then not presenting any solution [to the issues does not help],” he stressed.

He claimed that he has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to provide financial aid to the internally displaced persons (IDP’s) to enable them to rebuild their houses and restart their businesses.

This was the solution Imran proposed to the people of tribal areas who are facing the difficulties.

Moreover, he talked about the betterment of the locals through promoting tourism in the tribal areas.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Times one of the founding members of PTM Hamid Wazir said “PM is confusing the nation because on the one hand he is calling PTM as a voice of affected Pashtuns but on the other hand he is criticizing our way of demands.”

He added that no one can stop us from demanding our rights by such a tactics and people are no more ready to trust him because his government has failed to deliver.

While talking to Daily Times about the PM speech, Afrasiab Khattak a retired senator and analyst of regional affairs said “The PM should have called for a truth commission instead of targeting the tone of PTM because the people of tribal areas are badly affected during so called war on terror.”

He added that Imran Khan was a selected PM that was why he could not address the demands of PTM which are legal and constitutional.