"Establishment responsible for Peshawar situation"

Most of the guest speakers at Geo News special transmission programme ‘Jeenay Do Peshawar Ko’ were of the view that the ‘establishment’ was mainly at fault for letting Peshawar become a stronghold of terrorists. The guests at the proramme included: Mian Iftikhar Hussain of Awami National Party (ANP), tribal leader Gulab Jamal, Akram Durrani of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Professor Ibrahim of Jamat-e-Islami (JI), Barrister Masood Kausar of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Sardar Mehtab of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N. However, Shaukat Yousafzai of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Anisa Zaib Tahir Kheli held the political parties responsible for the situation in Peshawar. Calling Peshawar a city of flowers, majority of the speakers saw its strategic position as the prime reason for its destruction. Mian Iftikhar, Ghazi Gulam Jamal, Akram Durrani and Sardar Mehtab endorsed this view. Shaukat Yousafzai held Peshawar’s being too close to tribal areas responsible for the problem in the provincial capital while Masood Kausar saw the presence of Afghan refugees as its main cause.