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QUETTA: Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai has expressed serious concern over instability in the region and highlighted the need for a five-nation summit to ensure the area doesn’t become ‘a battleground for the big powers’.
“The neighboring countries including China, Afghanistan, Iran and India should be invited to the conference to adopt a joint strategy for ensuring this region does not become a battleground in the future.”
He expressed these views while speaking at a large public gathering in Pishin’s football stadium.
PTI general secretary Salman Akram Raja, Sunni Ittehad Council leader Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party central secretary Nawab Muhammad Ayaz Khan Jogezai, ex-governor Sardar Latif Khosa, and Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen leader Allama Raja Nasir also spoke at the public meeting.
Referring to the issue of Afghan refugees, Mr Achakzai said they should be granted legal status rather than being forcibly expelled. He said many Pakistanis hold dual citizenship in countries like the UK, Germany, and Turkiye. He questioned why Afghans born and raised in Pakistan were being denied citizenship.
He said that the country, which is a federation of five different nations, is plunging deeper into crises. He said it should be clear to everyone that neither any nation was master nor slave of another.
“Every general, citizen, woman, scholar, and even the world at large is aware of what transpired in the last elections. It is evident that PTI won the elections across the country, but shamelessly and brazenly, people in uniform altered the election results through sheer force, with the support of certain political parties,” he alleged.
He stated some generals complained that members of Tehreek Tahafuz-i-Ayeen Pakistan spoke harshly about them. He said they had no personal enmity with any general, scholar or individual. He said incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan had committed neither any murder nor robbery.
While acknowledging the necessity of the country’s military, generals, and intelligence agencies as its ‘eyes and ears,’ Mr Achakzai condemned their collusion with what he called “corrupt individuals, smugglers, and criminals”.
He called upon “honest police officers and security personnel to refuse orders” to shoot their fellow countrymen on behalf of “corrupt rulers”.
Mr Achakzai stated that if law enforcement agencies failed to control lawlessness, people would have to take matters into their own hands. He urged every household to “contribute one person to fight” against alleged looters and criminals.
Referring to the 2024 polls, the PkMAP leader claimed that PTI had won the general elections, but their mandate was stolen.
He asked Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti to order release of all political prisoners, including missing persons, as a goodwill gesture.
He said his movement stood with the oppressed, regardless of their political affiliations.
Movement for justice
Calling on PTI supporters, Mr Achakzai suggested that if necessary, he would step in as Mr Khan’s deputy to lead the movement for justice.
He urged PkMAP workers to prepare for a larger struggle and asked military, bureaucratic, and political leadership to admit past mistakes and commit to running the country under constitutional rule.
He asserted that the only path forward is for all institutions — military, judiciary, and media — to operate within constitutional boundaries, with parliament as the supreme authority.
Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2025
