[11] The Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan in its notification dated 6 October 2024 added the PTM into list of proscribed organizations citing public order and security in the country.

The jirga condemned the fake encounter killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a 27-year old Pashtun shopkeeper from Waziristan, perpetrated by the Karachi Police under Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan.

[17] Among other demands, the jirga also appealed the government to set up a judicial inquiry for Naqeebullah Mehsud, as well as for all the other Pashtuns murdered extrajudicially in police encounters.

[20][21] The PTM demands an end to the extrajudicial killings and disappearances, and what they allege to be the Pakistani military establishment's policy of labeling Taliban groups as either "good" or "bad" depending on whether they support the state of Pakistan.

He accused authorities of firing on demonstrators and suppressing media reports, as well as attempting to rig elections in tribal areas where PTM candidates were likely to win.

A number of cases highlighted by the PTM and investigated independently by the BBC came to light in a 2019 report titled "Uncovering Pakistan's secret human rights abuses".

Reacting to the report, Pashteen told the BBC, "It has taken us almost 15 years of suffering and humiliation to gather courage to speak up, and to spread awareness about how the military trampled our constitutional rights through both direct action and a policy of support for the militants.

"[23][24] Ahead of the jirga to held in October 2024 that attracted a large number of leaders, according to Manzoor Pashteen, his rights movement’s teams were subjected to physical harassment by the Pakistan state authorities during surveys in the tribal region.

He said, "Jirga is an integral part of our [Pashtun] culture and nobody will be allowed to prevent us from holding them for the resolution of our grievances.”[25] On 5 September 2017, Pashteen and his father, along with two other human rights activists, Jamal Malyar and Shah Faisal Ghazi, were detained by Pakistani security forces at Barwand check post in Tiarza Tehsil, South Waziristan.

[28] Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Pakistani authorities to release Pashteen and drop the charges against him, saying "using criminal laws to chill free expression and political opposition has no place in a democracy.

[11] The Afghan government has praised Pashteen's work, with President Ashraf Ghani supporting the march in February, leading some groups to accuse him and the PTM of "foreign backing".

[11] In May 2019 Major General Asif Ghafoor, serving as a spokesman for the Pakistani military, alleged that Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies were funding the PTM.

[38] In another instance, following the Asma Jahangir Conference held in Lahore, Manzoor Pashteen was booked under terrorism charges by Pakistani authorities for provoking resistance against the armed forces and the state institutions during his speech.