Info minister slams PTI over TTP, says party extended “olive branch” to terrorists

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Friday slammed the PTI for its stance towards the banned TTP and claimed the party has extended an “olive branch” towards the group.

“The spokespersons of the political party are afraid of talking about the terrorist group, as they have taken exemption from it by extending an ‘olive branch’ to them,” said Tarar while addressing a press conference alongside former ANP senator Zahid Khan.

The information minister also accused the PTI of initiating “confidence-building measures with the TTP” and added that they were afraid of being attacked by the TTP, so they didn’t call them terrorists.

Tarar made this statement after playing a clip from a Hum News program in which the host openly called the TTP a terrorist group. However, Shafiullah Jan, an adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, insisted that there are “groups within the TTP,” adding that those who are “against the state are terrorists.”

“They are afraid of saying anything regarding the TTP,” said Tarar, citing the example of former MPA Samar Haroon Bilour, who spoke courageously against terrorists in the Assembly despite losing her husband and father-in-law to terrorism.

He also accused the PTI of “bringing back terrorists” and settling them in KP after terrorism had been eliminated from the province.

“Their leader [incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan] used to call terrorists martyrs,” he said, adding that the PTI’s social media accounts criticised the army chief and the Pakistan Army, but did not utter a single word for the martyrs of the armed forces, as they are afraid of terrorists.

He claimed that a political-terror-crime nexus prevails in KP. “Political elements have a nexus with terrorists, and crime links them through the smuggling of oil, drugs, consumer goods, timber, and tobacco,” he said, adding that it forms a “bridge with political leaders at one end and terrorists at the other”.

“PTI does not condemn terrorists because they earn money for political leaders and assist them in running their businesses,” said the information minister.

“When it comes to maligning women and spreading hatred against them, they speak fluently and target them. However, they don’t speak against terrorists because they have weapons,” he said, accusing the PTI of misogyny.

He challenged the PTI to share the names of ten terrorist groups that were “good, pro-Pakistani, and whose services are for the country.”

‘Governance in KP’

Tarar said the federal and provincial governments of Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan are making efforts by constructing schools, colleges, universities, and hospitals. The governments have run electric buses, constructed modern bus stops, and built modern IT institutions.

“The governance in KP has collapsed,” he said, adding that when the ruling PTI in the province was asked about health and education facilities, they were unaware.

He said that land had been allocated for Benazir Hospital in KP 13 years ago, but it could not be constructed.

Talking about hospitals, he said public officials and ministers don’t go to KP public hospitals for treatment, as the hospitals are filled with garbage.

“The majority of patients from KP go to the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, as they have no options in the province,” he said, adding that the PTI had not provided them with any facilities in 12 years.

He said South Waziristan faces a scarcity of doctors, with only one male doctor available in the entire district. “The district does not have a single female doctor,” he added.

“The PTI couldn’t provide a system of drinking water in Tank district, as animals and residents drink water from the same pond,” he said.

Talking about education in the province, he said, “At least 4.9 million children and teenagers aged five to 17 years are out of school, with 22,000 schools lacking basic facilities.”

He added that four districts in the province do not have a college for girls.

“More than a dozen universities in KP don’t have any staff, and the staff in the remaining universities are not being paid,” he said.

Tarar further said that scandals involving billions of rupees had emerged in Kohistan, with PTI office bearers implicated, yet they could not establish a girls’ college.