Government has again invited the small ethnic group Pushtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) for a dialogue to discuss their genuine reservations, if they have any. The offer was made in a statement by the Defence Minister Pervez Khattak. The minister refereed to the historic decision of erstwhile FATA merger with Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and emphasied the need for making collective efforts by the elected representative of the province for the socioeconomic uplift of tribal districts, which still lag far behind in the facilities of roads infrastructure, healthcare and education. A PTM member National Assembly, Mohsin Dawar gave a skeptical response to government’s open and sincere invitation for holding talks on their whatever legitimate demands. He said in a tweet, “We are always open to dialogue but such efforts in the past have not been proved conclusive.” The bottom-line of his tweet says,” The need for the government is to be represented by those who have the power to implement agreements.” To whom this mischievous sentence of Mr. Mohsin Dawer’s tweet is directed? Is he not creating the wrong impression that civilian leadership is not running the interior policy of the country? One may remind him that it was the Prime Minister Imran Khan whose directives were implemented for removing his name and that of Ali Wazir MNA from Exit Control List, enabling these gentlemen to participate in the oath taking ceremony of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in March. It is a matter of record that they were received at Pak-Afghan border by former Tajik NDS spymaster Hanif Atmar and were flown to Kabul by helicopter. Will Mr.Dawar feel moral and political responsibility to give an explanation for it? Before 2018 polls, PTM was little known to the people in Khyber Puktunkhwa. The group first show of street power in Peshawar was fully supported and buttressed by a so called Pukhtun Nationalist Party of Baluchistan? The government respects the mandate given to Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir by the electorate of their respective constituencies. The dialogue initiatives of the past and the present one reflect the observance of democratic norms on the part of ruling political leadership. But unfortunately, PTM lawmakers have been found inclined towards militancy. Last year, Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir led a group of armed men and attacked security forces check post of Kharqamar in the tribal district of North Waziristan, injuring five Jawan. The forces returned the fire that killed 3 attackers. The PTM leaders wanted to exert pressure to get an arrested terrorist released from custody of security forces. Leaders of PTM play “Pukhtun Card” and articulate negative tendencies. In one of his earlier tweets Mohsin Dawar had said, “Geographies change but ethnic identity remains intact. I am Afghan and will remain Afghan. “He has deliberately used the word Afghan instead of Pukhtun. In the present day Afghanistan the people call their nationality as Afghan whether they are Pukhtuns, Tajik or Uzbecs or others people of other ethnic identity. All the refugees who have been living in Pakistan for the past 40 years show their nationality as Afghans.
