PESHAWAR: Newly elected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday ruled out any new military operation in the province to counter militancy.
The DG ISPR days earlier had criticised dialogue policy of the KP ruling party said governance gaps in KP were being paid for by the blood of security personnel.
“Appeasement of terrorists and their facilitators is never and not a policy,” he asserted, adding that the state and its institutions would not be bothered by “any political distortions”, he had said in a press conference in Peshawar.
In his maiden address to the provincial assembly after being elected as the 30th chief minister, Afridi declared that military operations “are not a solution to any problem,” aligning himself with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s opposition to armed interventions.
“As long as we are here, no operation will be allowed,” Afridi said, signalling a clear departure from Islamabad’s and the military’s approach to tackling the renewed wave of terrorism in the country’s northwest. The security establishment has repeatedly called for targeted operations against militant hideouts after a surge in attacks blamed on groups operating from Afghan soil.
Afridi instead urged dialogue and political inclusion, saying that decisions regarding security and border management should not be taken “in closed rooms.” He called for the federal government and national security institutions to consult the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa leadership, especially on policies concerning the former tribal areas that have seen a spike in militant activity.
The new chief minister also demanded a review of Pakistan’s Afghanistan policy, insisting that regional peace depended on “mutual understanding and consultation.” “There was no issue with Afghanistan during Imran Khan’s tenure. Today, Afghans are being pushed out after 40 years,” he said, referring to the government’s deportation drive against undocumented Afghan nationals.
Afridi accused past governments of “trading the heads of Pakhtuns” in the name of counterterrorism and warned against any policy that could reignite unrest in the province. His remarks appeared to reject proposals from the military and federal leadership to launch a coordinated anti-terror operation following a series of deadly attacks on security personnel in recent months.
Pledging loyalty to Imran Khan, Afridi told lawmakers that “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa belongs only to Imran Khan, and only he will run it.” He warned that if Khan were moved from prison “without our consultation, the entire country will be jammed,” drawing loud applause from PTI legislators.
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Afridi portrayed himself as a representative of the tribal population, saying his appointment aimed to “remove the sense of deprivation among the tribals.” He thanked former chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur for supporting Afghan refugees and credited PTI’s social media activists as “Pakistan’s biggest establishment.”
His comments underscore a widening rift between PTI’s provincial leadership and the federal government’s security agenda, at a time when Pakistan’s military has called for unified political backing to confront terrorism resurging along the Afghan border.
