Attack on National Unity

For over a decade, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has enjoyed some form of power in this country, and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), it is currently in power for the third time.

It is unfortunate for the Pashtun nation that the party, which once claimed it would change the country’s situation in 100 days, has in 11 years devastated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, sadly, they use their social media brigade to create the impression both nationally and internationally that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is progressing and reaching levels of development and peace that surpass Europe and Japan, flowing with rivers of milk and honey. They share videos of Japan and the U.S., presenting them as if Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has transformed. This illusion is being presented to the world through social media. We have always tried to raise awareness of the real facts and clear the widespread misconceptions so that the people of other provinces realize that if they continue to follow blindly, their provinces may face a worse fate than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

When PTI’s performance in KP is discussed, the claim is often made that police reforms have turned the provincial police into a people-friendly force. However, the reality is that since day one, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s police have been better than those of other provinces, not because of any reforms, but due to Pashtun traditions and values. Yet, when PTI came into power for the first time and began comparing KP’s police to Punjab’s, portraying Punjab police as villains and KP police as heroes, the traditional values of KP’s police began to erode for the first time in history. Police officers became political activists.

As for the economic development PTI never tires of claiming, the real picture is so grim that people would be left in shock. Over the past decade, the province’s debt has increased more than tenfold. Despite ruling the province for three consecutive terms, they could not launch any mega project apart from the Peshawar Metro, which is riddled with corruption. Projects like this are meant to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion on roads while boosting business activities, as seen between Islamabad and Rawalpindi, where the metro has improved traffic flow on Murree Road. However, the ill-conceived metro project in Peshawar has destroyed businesses along University Road and Khyber Bazaar, plunging the citizens into constant traffic woes.

When it comes to law and order, there has been a significant rise in murders and terrorism, which is well-known. The law and order situation is appalling.

Turning to my home district of Swabi, which has become a political stronghold for PTI since 2013, the situation has worsened to such an extent that even the Speaker of the National Assembly, provincial ministers, and leaders are not safe from terrorist threats. The recent incidents of terrorism at the Swabi police station have brought tears to the eyes of every local. Once a peaceful haven, Swabi now resembles a lawless region, where murder, robbery, and the rising menace of drugs like crystal meth have jeopardized the future of the youth.

PTI leaders love to talk about the revolution in health and education. However, exposing the true condition of these sectors would require multiple columns. To briefly summarize, the province’s remaining primary and secondary education systems and public health institutions now rely on the aid of international organizations like UNICEF. Over the past 11 years, they haven’t launched a single major project, surviving only by inaugurating UNICEF-funded projects. The situation in government educational institutions is dire, with staff salaries remaining unpaid for months. The lands of educational institutions built during the previous governments of the MMA and ANP are now being sold off by the so-called “Tabdeeli Sarkar” to “alleviate their poverty.”

PTI’s health policies, especially the “Sehat Insaf Card,” deserve a separate book to explore the double-edged sword it represents and how this “sugar-coated poison” has devastated the health department. It’s akin to a village elder pawning your assets to give you a single paracetamol tablet and then using the remaining money to “alleviate his poverty,” shine his politics, and all the while you celebrate the free headache treatment.

If no development is taking place and institutions lack funds even for employee salaries, where has all the province’s debt and its increasing natural resources gone? PTI leaders’ rapidly improving lifestyles indicate that these resources have either gone into politicians’ pockets or been spent on their prolonged sit-ins at D-Chowk and continue to be used there.

The conspiracy that started with PTI’s “suicidal sit-ins” after the 2013 elections, aimed at disrupting the country’s economy, has not stopped to this day. After economically bankrupting the country during their tenure, PTI, seeing the current positive economic indicators, has once again attacked the state and the economy through its protest movement. No patriotic Pakistani could even imagine such a thing.

The 2013 sit-ins disrupted the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which was supposed to bring economic prosperity, and shook the foundations of the “sweeter than honey, higher than the Himalayas” friendship between Pakistan and China. The current protest movement targets the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference. If we look objectively, would Modi’s government act differently than PTI regarding CPEC and the SCO conference? Absolutely not! Then why is the leash being extended for those with such anti-state ambitions? If the state had made an example of those responsible for attacking the state on May 9, there would be peace today, and no one would dare attack the state again. Unfortunately, due to poor policies, these people have once again attacked the state and its institutions. Those who once feared local police stations are now attacking generals and army chiefs.

Our enemies, who have been spending billions of dollars for the last 75 years to keep Pakistan from becoming a united nation, may have disturbed our peace, but patriotic Pakistanis have never allowed them to succeed. However, the dangerous game PTI’s founder has initiated through Ali Amin Gandapur threatens national unity and security.

By attacking the federation and Punjab, they are trying to portray KP as a separate entity, almost like a hostile neighbor, instead of one of the country’s provinces. This is a tragedy. Our resources, instead of being used for our welfare, are being used to incite us against the federation, sow ethnic hatred, roll back CPEC, and wage war against the state. PTI, in pursuit of its political interests, is pushing KP’s resources and youth into a fire, and if this is not addressed in time, the very existence of the federation may be at risk. If the current government and the state fail to address this menace in time, we, as a nation, could find ourselves in serious trouble.