Member National Assembly (MNA) Moshin Dawar, who belongs to the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), has thanked Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for expressing concern over alleged rights abuses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan at the hands of the government of Pakistan.
“I would like to thank Ashraf Ghani for his words. I wish, at the very least, our state had realised its crime of martyring Arman Loni, but instead, it launched a crackdown on our grief and now is condemning those who offer sympathy to us? By what standard of humanity is this ok?” Dawar tweeted.
I wld like to thank @ashrafghani for his words. I wish, at the very least, our state had realized its crime of martyring Arman Loni, but instead it launched a crackdown on our grief. And now it is condemning those who offer sympathy to us? By what standard of humanity is this ok?
— Mohsin Dawar (@mjdawar) February 7, 2019
The lawmaker’s statement came following Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s rejection of the Afghan president’s tweet.
“We reject the tweet by President Ashraf Ghani. Such irresponsible statements are only gross interference. Afghan leadership needs to focus on long-standing serious grievances of the Afghan people,” Qureshi had tweeted.
We reject the tweet by President Ashraf Ghani. Such irresponsible statements are only gross interference. Afghan leadership needs to focus on long-standing serious grievances of the Afghan people.
— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) February 7, 2019
Earlier in the day, Ghani said that the Afghan government had “serious concerns about the violence perpetrated against peaceful protesters and civil activists” in the two provinces.
The Afghan government has serious concerns about the violence perpetrated against peaceful protestors and civil activists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) February 7, 2019
Ghani further said: “We believe it is the moral responsibility of every government to support civil activities that take a stand against the terrorism and extremism that plagues and threatens our region and collective security. Otherwise, there could be long-standing negative consequences.”
We believe it is the moral responsibility of every government to support civil activities that take a stand against the terrorism and extremism that plagues and threatens our region and collective security. Otherwise there could be long-standing negative consequences.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) February 7, 2019
He appeared to be referring to a PTM sit-in in Loralai on Saturday during which PTM leader Arman Loni died. Following this, a shutterdown strike was observed in Quetta on Monday.
Later on Tuesday, during a protest outside the Islamabad Press Club called over Loni’s death, rights activist Gulalai Ismail and 17 others associated with the PTM were detained by the capital police. Ismail was released late on Wednesday night.
