ISLAMABAD: A constitutional petition has been filed in the Supreme Court requesting it to direct the government to try the Member of National Assembly, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, for high treason over his controversial statements regarding the Afghan refugees. The Pushtun nationalist leader and chief of Pushtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Mahmood Khan Achakzai, while in an interview with the Kabul-based English language daily Afghanistan Times reportedly said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the province of Pakistan, belonged to Afghanistan and the Afghans. “KP belongs to the Afghans and they can live there without fear and I will not allow anyone to harass the Afghan refugees in their own land,” he had further stated. “If the Afghans are harassed in other parts of Pakistan, they should come to KP where no one can ask them for refugee cards, because it also belongs to them,” he added during an interview with Afghanistan Times. This statement of Achakzai had invited the anger nation-wide in general and KPK in particular. Responding to the statement KPK chief minister Pervaiz Khattak had lashed out saying that the people of KPK gave their verdict in favour of Pakistan in 1947 adding Achakzai humiliated the mandate of Pushtoon people. In the instant petition filed under Article 184 (3) by Muzaffar Ali Akhunzada, through his counsel Zafar Abbas, it was stated that Afghan refugees were living in the country unlawfully specially in KP which is against the law and the constitution of Pakistan. It further stated that Mehmood Khan Achakzai being the sitting member of National Assembly had taken oath under the constitution to protect it and the law of the country. “But respondent no. 1 (Achakzai) did not fulfil the requirement of the Constitution of Pakistan and issued a statement against the interests of Pakistan which falls as high treason under Article 6,” stated the petition. The petitioner requested the court to accept the plea and direct interior ministry for taking action against Achakzai’s high treason act under Article 6. The petitioner also made the Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq, a respondent. The Supreme Court of Pakistan office on Monday will decide whether the petition is maintainable or not. It is pertinent to mention here that after Achakzai’s remarks started a series of condemnations in Pakistan, he issued a clarification and claimed that the Afghan media had taken his words out of context. He contended that he had been referring to KP’s historic background before the Durand Line agreement and did not say the province belonged to Afghans.