PESHAWAR — Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Omar Ayub, opposition leader in the National Assembly, and former Speaker Asad Qaiser, showed up at the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) Qaumi Jirga in Khyber on Thursday.
The PTI delegation met with jirga elders, offering condolences to the families of those killed in recent clashes.Taking the stage, Ayub sharply condemned the deadly shootings that targeted the gathering, accusing caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi and former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of orchestrating the attack. “Shots were fired directly at the jirga, and martyrs fell,” Ayub said. “We will bring this up on the floor of the National Assembly and in front of the media. Those responsible will face justice.”
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Ayub vowed that PTI fully supported the jirga’s core demand for peace. “We stand side by side with this jirga. Our demand for peace is the same,” he said.Qaiser reinforced that message, aligning himself with the Pashtun cause. “We are all Pashtun, and we are united with this jirga,”
Qaiser said, promising that he would continue raising the issues of tribal districts, including Waziristan, in the Assembly. “I have spoken about these issues before, and I will keep doing so.” He also pressed for the resumption of trade with Afghanistan.Governor Calls for Peaceful ProtestMeanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi addressed the upcoming Pashtun jirga or protest, declaring his intent to attend.
“As a Pashtun, I will be there,” Kundi said, although he laid down a strict rule: “This protest must stay peaceful. There should be no anti-state rhetoric, and no foreign flags should fly.” He urged Pashtun protesters to engage through constitutional channels, assuring them that even if they no longer had seats in Parliament, their constitutional rights would be defended.“We will talk only to those who respect Pakistan’s Constitution,” Kundi said. “For those who don’t, there will be no dialogue.”
He called for collective action to solve the region’s issues, pointing to a recent controversy in which a Member of Parliament sought the United Nations’ help to find the missing chief minister, a move that stirred debate across Pakistan.Both PTI leaders and Kundi expressed sorrow over the deadly shootings during the jirga, calling it a tragic loss for the Pashtun cause.
