ISLAMABAD – Imran Khan – the then prime minister – and his close aide Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed had agreed to reverse the FATA merger – a demand made by the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda.

This startling revelation was made by Murtaza Solangi in The Weekend – a weekly program co-hosted by Muhammad Ali.

He negated the impression created by Imran about his efforts to eliminate the outlawed TTP. The PTI founder is claiming that he and Faiz had persuaded the Afghan Taliban after the Kabul takeover in August 2021 to act swiftly against the terrorist organization which is now based in Afghanistan.

However, the facts are against Imran’s claims, as the TTP has been conducting terrorist attacks in Pakistan while using Afghanistan as a base. And the Afghan Taliban aren’t paying attention to the repeated demands made by Islamabad.

But the issue is even more serious given the fact that Solangi says the demand was put forward by the Afghan Taliban, not the TTP. It shows that Imran and Faiz were ready to violate national sovereignty only to please a foreign entity and support transnational jihadist organizations.

However, it wasn’t just the Afghan Taliban as al Qaeda too wanted the same, says Solangi, showing the nexus between these outfits, right from the ideological to the operational levels.

The other two demands were resettling the TTP members and their families in Pakistan along with paying millions in term of compensation to them.

Imran has already proudly admitted the TTP resettlement, saying that the move was meant for bringing peace to Pakistan. However, the only thing we have got since then is an alarming rise in terrorism.

Solangi said the Afghan Taliban had never promised to eliminate the TTP, adding, “The Afghan Taliban, al Qaeda and TTP are joined at the hip.”

GLOBAL TERROR OUTFITS ARE GREATER THAN SOVEREIGNTY!

The erstwhile FATA was a lawless region located along the Pak-Afghan border. The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [formerly known as North West Frontier Province] had no say in the administration there.

Pakistani laws applicable to other parts of the country were not applied there as the federal government nominally governed the region through a political agent – the person responsible for administration in a tribal agency. For administrative purposes, FATA was divided into seven tribal agencies.

However, the 25th Amendment ensured the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which introduced basic concepts of state to the region and extended their basic rights to the local population.

But Solangi says the agreement meant that Faiz moved the Supreme Court through his proxies to get the 25 Amendment declared as unconstitutional.

Hence, Imran and Faiz were ready to violate the country’s sovereignty at the behest global terrorist organizations.

WHY DO THEY NEED A LAWLESS TRIBAL REGION?  

The erstwhile FATA has remained a center for local and global terror organizations like al Qaeda, as it provided an opportunity to expand their operations beyond Afghanistan. Other outfits like ETIM and Daesh [IS-K] too are active across Pakistan’s western borders.

Military operations conducted by Pakistan in the past had forced the terrorists to take refuge in Afghanistan. However, the return of Afghan Taliban in Kabul means they see an opportunity to reassert themselves.

That’s why, Solangi says, both the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda were aiming at restoration of FATA so that they could operate freely in Pakistan and carry out terrorism acts around the world.

However, they also had a long-term view, as Solangi says the proposed move was designed as a guarantee in case the world powers again toppled the Afghan Taliban government in future.

In that case, FATA would have served as a safe haven for these terrorists by allowing them to relocate and concentrate in the region, he explained.

IMRAN: A LONG-TIME ALLY 

The information shared by Solangi shouldn’t be a surprise for us, as Imran is the one who declared Osama bin Laden a martyr.

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Moreover, he even repeatedly called for allowing the Taliban to open offices in Pakistan, thus giving a legitimacy to terrorists.

But most important thing to note that Imran always labels military action in erstwhile FATA as a mistake or a blunder.

Hence, the demand to revoke FATA merger shared his views and vision. He fully believed in what he was doing – giving a base to global terrorist organizations.