Two controversial Pakistani lawmakers, Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), were reportedly received by Afghanistan’s prime intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS) during their visit to Kabul. This raises eyebrow as the same intelligence agency is accused of harboring anti-Pakistan elements in Afghanistan and beyond.
Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir met with former head of NDS Amrullah saleh. Our two honourable MNAs are exchanging pleasantries with the worst enemy of Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/mVOMHG2wxG
— Rizwan Ghilzai (Remembering Arshad Sharif) (@RizwanGhilzai) March 9, 2020
According to details, Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir received a special protocol by NDS and other agencies upon their arrival in Kabul where they had landed to attend oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected president Ashraf Ghani.
NDS officials provided a special military helicopter to the PTM leaders, whereas, Mohsin Dawar has admitted that Ghani’s oath-taking ceremony was held up following a delay in their arrival to the presidential palace.
The members of parliament have also held a meeting with former chief of NDS, Amrullah Saleh, in a good environment in Kabul who is famous for his anti-Pakistan stance.
Read more: Should PTM’s Ali Wazir be part of Pakistan’s National Assembly?
Murad Saeed, while talking to ARY News, said Prime Minister Imran Khan has always urged for peace and dialogues in Afghanistan, on the other hand, tensions of Pak-Afghan border escalated whenever Islamabad raised voice for peace establishment in Afghanistan. The minister said Ali Wazir has never responded the questioned raised by him on the National Assembly’s floor. The agenda of PTM leaders will be exposed more, he added. The legislator had also passed inappropriate remarks against Pakistani institutions.
Saeed vowed that the matter will be raised in the National Assembly against the PTM leaders who enjoyed special protocol in Afghanistan. He censured Dawar and Wazir, saying that they have never acted as the friends of Pakistan nor talked for the development Pashtuns.
It is worth noting that Fawad Chaudhry, senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Federal Minister for Science and Technology, has recently urged the speaker NA to take notice of Wazir’s anti-Pakistan statements.
غیر ملکی طاقت سے پاکستان کے شہروں کو تباہ کرنے کا مطالببہ کرنے کا مطلب ہے کہ آپ پاکستان سے وفادار نہیں ہیں اورآپ اپنے حلف کی خلاف ورزی کے مرتکب ہوئے ہیں اگر PTM کے علی وزیر اپنے بیان پر معافی نہیں مانگتے تو اسپیکر قومی اسمبلی ان کے خلاف Art 63 کے تحت نااھلی کے ریفرنس کا آغاز کریں
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) March 3, 2020
Brigadier Retired Haris Nawaz told ARY News that the federal government should not give permission to PTM leaders to visit Afghanistan as both lawmakers are apparently pawns of NDS and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). “Both lawmakers have always shown up as anti-Pakistan and anti-Army. The government should not show flexibility to the personalities involved in giving stances against Pakistan and its armed forces. I demand to take strict action against Dawar and Wazir by the higher authorities,” he added.
PTM replacing TTP?
Sultan M Hali, the author of Defence and Diplomacy, believes that “the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been inimical to Pakistan and has waged war against it, causing a loss of nearly 70,000 people. In the near past, the PTM appears to have cloned the TTP. It is ironic that two PTM adherents gained access to the Parliament as MNAs in the 2018 general elections but have not given up trolling Pakistan and its Army”.
It is worth noting that in a recent video circulating on social media, MNA Ali Wazir is being seen addressing a crowd in Bannu, where he said that “we will cut down the barbed wires and fences which Pak Army has erected on Pak-Afghan border and use them to hang soldiers.”
Read more: Unmasking PTM: The enemy behind tribal areas’ underdevelopment
Mr. Hali notes that “such statements were frequently made by TTP representatives. They had even targeted the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar on 16 December 2014 in a dastardly attack in which 142 innocent children were martyred. The state of Pakistan got its act together after the watershed moment of the APS attack. Military Operation Zarb-e-Azb took care of the TTP, who were routed and scattered. Their leadership beat a hasty retreat to Afghanistan, but some were hunted down and eliminated”.
The PTM rallies were aimed at launching protests to highlight the plight of the Pashtun community, the second largest ethnic group in Pakistan, comprising nearly 15.42 percent of the population. Around this time, forces hostile to Pakistan, appear to have started sponsoring PTM as it began chanting slogans of Yeh jo dehshatgardi hai, iss ke peechhay wardi hai (‘Behind this terrorism is the uniformed army’).
Mr. Hali opines that an important aspect is that Manzoor Pashteen did not even condemn violence against Afghans by US- and Indian-sponsored ISIS. It is no coincidence that as soon as India began experiencing protests all across, the likes of the PTM have been pushed by their foreign sponsors to instigate violence in Pakistan.
A mob led by PTM leaders and MNAs Mohsin Javed Dawar and Ali Wazir assaulted Kharqamar check-post in Boyya area of North Waziristan tribal district on 26 May 2019, causing injuries to five soldiers of the Pakistan Army.
Read more: Ditch Anti-Pakistan Agenda if you want Pakistan Working for You: Govt to PTM
In a statement, Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Syed Amjad Shah expressed the view that any demands of an individual or a group which is within the Constitution must be fulfilled by the government. “But, a few members of PTM are inciting people for separation and are demonizing the state institutions through an empty rhetoric which comes in the ambit of treason,” he said, and called upon the government to take strict legal action against all such elements.
“It is high time that enemies of Pakistan, be they members of the Parliament, should be taken to task legally and set exemplary punishments under the law of the land,” proposes Mr. Hali.