Yesterday, unknown terrorists attacked a convoy of judges near Dera Ismail Khan, killing two people, most likely cops. The judges were unharmed, however this is the second attack on judges in this area this year. Earlier, a judge was kidnapped from Tank and taken to Waziristan. His guard was killed, and his automobile was burned. Later, it was reported that the provincial government had rescued the judge by paying crores of ransom to the kidnappers. Surprisingly, the regional government did not even reject the information or say it had not paid the ransom.
According to a CTD report, over 250 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police officers have been martyred or injured this year. Worryingly, Dera Ismail Khan has experienced the highest number of attacks on all forces this year. Dera Ismail Khan is the home district of Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faisal Karim Kundi, and Inspector General of KP Police. If these three senior government individuals cannot secure their hometown and district, it raises the question of what obstacles other insurgency-hit communities in the province may face. The day before this action was taken, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi told the media in Peshawar that the province’s law and order situation was very bad, and that if the provincial government felt it was necessary to deal with this challenge, we were willing to talk to the federal government to fix things. Still, the provincial government did not respond positively to this offer as usual. Meanwhile, the Minister of Interior for Pakistan, Mohsin Naqvi, and the Governor met to discuss security difficulties. Still, all of their efforts have proven futile because the provincial government is unwilling to deal with the issues. The provincial government is interested in transferring the DPOs of three to four insurgency-hit merging districts based on FIRs filed against some governing party members involved or wanted in the May 9 riots.
Whether it is legislation or the performance of the so-called provincial assembly, it can be well gauged by watching the magnificent “proceedings” of yesterday’s session, during which two “honorable” legislators not only openly abused each other, but also became arrogant in front of millions of people watching them live on television screens. The entire Assembly and Cabinet are focused on increasing the privileges and facilities available to Ministers and MPAs. They are not concerned with the province’s security, administrative, and economic concerns and problems.