Afridi says there can be no compromise on country's sovereignty

Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Shaharyar Afridi on Tuesday maintained that there can be no compromise on sovereignty of the country and those challenging the writ of the state and maligning the Armed Forces would be penalised.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, the minister said that Constitution of Pakistan does not allow anybody to malign Armed Forces, judiciary and other institutions of the state.
Referring to hate speeches of leaders of Pushtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, Afridi questioned as to what message they wanted to give to bereaved families of soldiers and officers of security forces who have rendering sacrifices for restoration of peace in motherland and particularly in former FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
"This is regretful to note that thoughts are being promoted by those who are members of this House and they are trying to distract youth of the province," he said.
"They deliver such hate speeches and raise such slogans against Armed Forces which please enemies of the country," the minister told the House. Afridi maintained that the government would ensure safety of property and lives of all the Pakistanis without any discrimination of religion, language, province, sect or the region but would not compromise on the country's sovereignty.
The minister said it was leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which brought Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir and decided not to contest 2018 elections against them seriously. He said that one of them was also made chairman of standing committee of the House but what they did in return was that they raised slogans against the Armed Forces and disgraced the national flag.
The minister while referring to an earlier speech of Baloch parliamentarian Sardar Akhtar Mengal said whenever North Wazrisitan like incidents occur, some people start exploiting their past deprivations and Islamabad is blamed for backwardness of provinces. "But when the federal government attempts to take up any development activity, it is said it is the provincial issue," he said.
Sardar Akhtar Mengal of Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) asked the government to take situation in North Waziristan seriously and a commission should probe the tragic incident and address demands of people of former FATA.
"Whether there it comes to issues of Balochistan or former FATA, a parliamentary commission should be constituted," he said.
Mengal said he did not want to speak on allegations being faced by chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during the holy month of Ramazan.
The Baloch leader said declaring political leaders as traitors is not a new thing; rather, there is long list of those including Fatima Jinnah, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Nawar Akbar Bugti, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Abdul Wali Khan, Khair Bux Marri and Altaf Hussain.
He pointed out that models of mountains of Chaghi where the nuclear tests were conducted are displayed all over the country but none of the government since 1998 took problems of the area seriously.