KP govt bars officials from attending outlawed PTM rallies

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has imposed a ban on public employees attending rallies organised by the outlawed Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The notification, circulated to all provincial departments, warned civil servants against any involvement with proscribed organisations.

“Students are vulnerable to propaganda on account of their tender age and need to be educated on the consequences of participation, overt or covert, physically, financially or otherwise in any programme or activity of a proscribed organisation by the vice chancellors of public and private sector universities, the principals of public and private sector college on immediate basis. Higher Education Department shall ensure that this fact and legal position is made known to the students by their respective vice chancellors/principals /heads of educational institutions.

“All administrative and police officers shall take appropriate measures in accordance with law to ensure that directions contained herein are implemented in letter and spirit.”

Simultaneously, the federal government has placed PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen and others on the Fourth Schedule.

Earlier on Sunday, the federal government imposed a ban on the PTM, citing threats to national peace and security.

The party was declared “unlawful” under Section 11B of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 1997.

The movement was founded as Mahsud Tahafuz Movement in May 2014 by eight students in Dera Ismail Khan as an initiative for removing landmines from Waziristan and other parts of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, affected by the war in North-West Pakistan.

The movement rose to prominence in January 2018 when it began a justice movement for Naqeebullah Mehsud, who was extrajudicially killed in a fake encounter staged by the police officer Rao Anwar in Karachi.