SWABI: Qaumi Watan Party provincial president Sikandar Sherpao said here on Tuesday that both the federal and provincial governments had utterly failed to overcome the menace of terrorism, which has crippled life in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular.

Addressing party workers at the residence of Masood Jabar and later talking to mediapersons, he said that unabated operations against terrorists and the bad law and order had stressed people out.

“It is responsibility of the government to provide security to the citizens, ensuring that there is no threat to their life and property,” he said.

Sikandar said the volatile situation had also badly hit the province’s economy. He recalled that soon after the Army Public School massacre, the National Action Plan was formulated to eradicate menace of terrorism, but it was never implemented in letter and spirit.

Sikandar Sherpao said that political leadership of both Afghanistan and Pakistan should sit across the table to bridge their trust deficit and work for peace and development of the region.

He said peace in South Asia would be a pipedream if there was no peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and terrorists would continue to achieve their objectives.

“The law and order situation in KP is deteriorating by the day, but the government is unmoved,” he said. He said people of the southern districts kept indoors after the sunset due to the precarious security situation.

The QWP leader said that all the stakeholders, including leaders of political and religious parties, youth, civil society activists, business community, parliamentarians, local government representatives and other sections of the society should make collective efforts to stamp out terrorism from the soil of Pakistan.

“When we succeed in forging unity, nobody can harm us and destabilise our motherland,” he remarked.

On the occasion, Masood Jabar, QWP’s former provincial deputy general secretary, said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders did not pay any attention to problems of people, and public money was being spent on sit-ins and protest rallies.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2024