Pashtun nationalist leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai's statement that Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province 'belongs to Afghans' has stoked a fresh controversy.
In an interview on Thursday with a Kabul-based English daily, Pushtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chief Achakzai said that "K-P belongs to Afghans and they can live there without fear and irritation".
Achakzai added "I will not allow anyone to harass Afghan refugees in their own land. If Afghans are harassed in other parts of Pakistan, they should come to K-P where no one can ask them for refugee cards, because it also belongs to them," reports the Express Tribune.
Lashing out at Achakzai's comments, K-P Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak said the PkMAP chief has 'humiliated all Pakistanis'.
"The people of K-P gave their verdict in favour of Pakistan, not Afghanistan, in 1947," Khattak said Chief Minister Khattak adding "Does Mehmood Khan Achakzai still envision a Pakistan without K-P?"
As Achakzai's remarks sparked condemnation in Pakistan, he issued a clarification and insisted that he had been referring to K-P's historic background before the Durand Line agreement and did not say the province belonged to Afghans.