PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should have cancelled his Turkey visit to announce the launch of operation Raddul Fasaad himself.

“Instead of letting someone else announce operation Raddul Fasaad launched against terrorism, I think the prime minister should have done it himself,” said the PTI chairman who himself despite tense security situation in the city on Thursday came to speak at ‘Meet the Press’ programme of the Peshawar Press Club.

Answering various questions about the recent wave of terrorism in the country, Mr Khan also opined that PM Sharif should have cancelled his three-day visit to Turkey to announce waging a war against those who were responsible for attacking cities and killing people across the country in different terror attacks.

“The PM should have taken all the four provinces into confidence on this action,” said the PTI chief as he added that due to the government’s failure to fully implement the National Action Plan, especially in Punjab, the country was facing a new wave of terrorism.

“We had a rare opportunity to utilise gains from the operation Zarb-i-Azb for development of tribal areas, but we didn’t focus on it,” said Mr Khan. He said that the youth of tribal areas should have been given job opportunities as their homes and businesses were destroyed, but no one gave any attention to tribal areas.

The PTI chief also directed Chief Minister Pervez Khattak who was present at the programme along with his advisors and assistants to visit other provinces and meet the chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab to take up the issue of racial profiling and discrimination the Pakhtun were facing in these provinces. He said that Pakhtuns were wrongly and cruelly targeted under the actions initiated after acts of terrorism in Sindh and Punjab.

He also reiterated his opinion on merger of tribal areas with KP to end the sense of deprivation in tribal areas.

“Fata should be merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa immediately so that a loud and clear voice of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakhtuns could be heard in Pakistan,” said Mr Khan who also praised the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for brining reforms in the police department through legislation. He said that Punjab and Sindh also needed to bring reforms in their police to change the current mindset and free it from political influence.

He also spoke on Panama Leaks case as its hearing completed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday.

“Whatever the court decides, we would respect the verdict. We have full confidence in the judiciary,” said Mr Khan. He said that the Supreme Court had done what it was supposed to do. It would stop rulers from corruption in the future. He said that the Panama Leaks case was historical in the sense that for the first time the Supreme Court frisked a PM on the charges of corruption.

“Pakistan was stuck in the Panama Leaks case for the last eight months and after the court decision on it, a new Pakistan would come into being,” said an optimistic Khan as he opined that in future rulers and politicians would think a hundred times before making their hands dirty.

Later, the PTI chief had to leave a joining ceremony in the middle due to a chaotic gathering at the Chief Minister’s House. Mr Khan was supposed to speak at the joining of his party by former Pakistan Peoples Party local leader Shaukat Mohmand, but chaos and mismanagement due to supporters accompanying the new entrant forced him to leave the ceremony in the middle.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2017