Opposition party politicians from both the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have alleged that they were not granted permission from the ‘authorities’ to enter Kurram agency capital Parichana to express solidarity with victims of a deadly suicide attack despite trying for an entire week while Pakistan Tehrik Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan was allowed to go to the capital.
Imran Khan visited Parachinar on Friday to attend the dharna arranged in the city by activists and spoke at length about foreign conspiracy theories aimed at dividing Islam. The ANP and PPP however are outraged as they say Imran Khan was allowed to go to the capital after the bloody attack but they were repeatedly shot down by the authorities and not given permission to go to the protests or to visit the terror struck city in FATA.
Imran Khan had initially received high praise for becoming the only leading political figure to go to Parachinar after the blasts to express solidarity with the people of the bloodied city. However the claims of his supporters that he was the only politician who had the nerve to go to Parachinar was met with a defined sense of skepticism as leading members of the PPP and the ANP related how they were not allowed to go to Parachinar over ‘security concerns’ despite their incessant tries to do so.
Arial view of #Parachinar city.we are not allowed to land in Cantt due to #security clearance, arial firing.can people be safe? #media #PPP pic.twitter.com/tO84Ctf6ij
— Faisal Karim Kundi (@fkkundi) June 29, 2017
while we were landing P/chanar the pilot lifted the heli almost at 90 degree up with a sharp turn.Pilot was informed abt some eminent attack
— Senator Rehman Malik (@SenRehmanMalik) June 29, 2017
No, shame that the PPP team from Islamabad who showed up first was denied access and landing @fkkundi @SenRehmanMalik https://t.co/nwS5vcignM
— SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) June 30, 2017
I wanted to visit Parachinar since the beginning but was denied permission from the authorities at multiple occasions +
— Mian Iftikhar Husain (@MianIftikharHus) June 30, 2017
Senior ANP leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain revealed in a series of tweets that he had wished to go to Parachinar from the very moment that the tragic attack took place but was not allowed to do so by the “police authorities.” People had naturally wondered why the ANP stalwart had not visited the scene given his reputation for being one of the first people to reach at such occasions ignoring any and all security risk the his own person. Hussain’s son has earlier been killed in a targeted attack and he was further made the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt the very next day during the son’s funeral procession. It makes sense then that the only thing that could possibly have stopped Mian Iftikhar from going would have to be force.
It had been earlier been speculated that perhaps the ANP leadership had not been allowed to go as they were attempting to travel by road since they did not have any arrangements for a helicopter. Speaking to Pakistan Today, however, ANP’s Senior Vice President Bushra Gohar decried these claims as false. She said that while the ANP was not as well funded and lacked a helicopter like other political parties, PPP leaders including Faisal Karim Kundi and Rehman Malik had not been given permission to land their helicopters in the Kurram agency.
Talking further to Pakistan Today she said that for two days no political leaders were allowed to enter the agency. “We had been trying for one week through our local parties in the agency and through our contacts in the region. However we were not allowed to go at any stage.” She further stated that both she and Mian Iftikhar had visited the injured in hospital and had quite strongly insisted that they wished to go to Parachinr but they had simply been stopped by the security agencies. She ended by telling Pakistan Today that “people know well enough who controls the agency and who gives the instructions. They know why we were not given permission for an entire week but then Imran Khan was simply flown in when even the Prime Minister had not yet visited the scene.” On further inquiry it was learned that after Imran Khan had visited and the ANP once again tried to visit the area, they were told to stay and given the instruction that “the dharna is now over and there is no need to come.”
The PPP faced a similar situation when their helicopters were both not allowed to land and they were not given permission to leave the air crafts to go join the people of Parachinar. Former Interior Minister Rehman Malik too complained about not being allowed to join the people in their time of difficulty while Faisal Karim Kundi said that certain elements were trying to give the PTI and their chairman a “lead” and that an unfair playing ground was being prepared for the PPP.
