Banned Fitna al Khawarij cannot be defeated until its ideology that promotes militancy and terrorism is killed, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Friday.

“Unfortunately, different experiments were made in Pakistan and most of the time they were wrong. Not just resettlement, when they [TTP members] were being trained in madressahs, they were against Pakistan,” he said while appearing on the Aaj News programme Rubarro.

Many leaders of the ruling coalition blame jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his party for the rise in terrorism in the country, alleging that the former ruling party’s decision to allow the resettlement of terrorists led to a rise in militancy.

In February 2023, Khan defended his plans to resettle thousands of fighters from the outlawed group and blamed the PDM government for “leaving the problem to foster” as it was “clueless” about the plan.

Kaira wondered what the country would achieve after having a dialogue with them. He supported his argument by saying that the banned TTP and the Afghan Taliban have the same ideology and do not accept either any government or Constitution.

“The ideology of Fitna al Khawarij is still being taught in madressahs across Pakistan. As long as this harmful thought persists, it will be challenging to eradicate their influence. To truly confront this issue, we must first eliminate the underlying ideology,” he said.

“When you settle 50,000 people here and do not disarm them, how can you expect them to abandon their ideology? They know how to fight and are prepared to do so,” Kaira added.

PTI leader Shaukat Yousafzai, who was also on the show via video link, said that such decisions are not taken unilaterally as institutional input is also involved.

He went on to add that the situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram was better after the ceasefire was reached between the two groups earlier this month.

He admitted that there were difficulties in the region but not like Karachi where street crimes were high as compared to the whole country. While citing a media report, the PTI leader said that several people were killed in the city during snatching.

When asked, Kaira said that he does not blame the PTI leadership or the-then PM Khan for the resettlement. He described the decision as “misjudgment”.

The PPP leader added that the country was still not in the “right direction” even after making wrong decisions. He asked was any step was being taken to dismantle the terrorists’ ideology.

Kaira added that the PTI should admit wrong decisions were taken in the past and the party would review them.