PTI ISLAMABAD LONG MARCH

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the government would not give any relief under pressure, warning PTI to forget about making demands at gunpoint.

Speaking to Geo News, Asif urged PTI to sit at the negotiating table, return home and focus on governing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including stopping support and financing for terrorists.

Referring to Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Asif said he had an old relationship with Nawaz Sharif and urged him to play his role by talking about Pakistan and its integrity.

Asif also called for unity in fighting Afghanistan-sponsored terrorism.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had declared war against the country in coordination with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and was under the illusion that it could blackmail the government by holding a long march.

Speaking to Geo News, Asif said that the government cannot be blackmailed by PTI under any circumstances. “It has become a tradition that you [march on] Islamabad every two to three months,” he said.

The minister also stressed that PTI had never spoken out against the TTP, adding that terrorists roam freely in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and that the provincial government has no writ in some districts of the province.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar said that the policy regarding terrorism must be changed and that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi had never made a statement in support of terrorism.

In a press conference at the residence of Provincial Minister Fazal Shakoor Khan, Gohar expressed hope for Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s good role in talks between the government and PTI.

“Policy regarding terrorism must be changed,” he said, adding that opposing governor’s rule or imposing an emergency is not the solution to the problem.

Gohar also defended KP CM Afridi, saying that he had “never made a statement in support of terrorists,” while PPP and PML-N were spreading false narratives against PTI.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is doing nothing to stop terrorism, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Bilal Azhar Kayani said on Thursday, criticising the provincial administration over the worsening security situation.

“KP government has apparently taken an oath not to take responsibility,” Kayani said, adding that the public was bearing the consequences of the provincial government’s “incompetence”.

He said terrorism had resurfaced in the province, while the KP government was doing nothing to stop the war against militancy.

Kayani also criticised PTI leaders and workers, saying that they opposed the fight against terrorism and had described it as a “war of dollars”.

He said KP police personnel were making sacrifices day and night, while the provincial government had failed to give due importance to the police and Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) over the past 13 years.

“If your priority is one prisoner, then you are not capable of running a government,” Kayani said.

Despite the formal collapse of talks between the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over its march towards Islamabad, backchannel contacts between the two sides have not completely ended, with PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi continuing to explore possible avenues to defuse the confrontation.

The meeting assumes significance in the backdrop of statements made by the parties against each other. The two sides had held intensive negotiations over the past few days in an effort to avert the march.

According to reports, substantial progress had been made on a number of political and legal issues, but the talks ultimately broke down over disagreements relating particularly to counterterrorism measures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Sources familiar with the contacts said, however, that the failure of formal talks should not be interpreted as the complete closure of political channel. The continuing contact between Gohar and Naqvi indicates that both sides still have an interest in keeping some line of communication open, particularly to prevent the situation from escalating further.

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Federal Minister Engineer Amir Muqam said that the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has nothing to show for its performance in 13 years of governance.

Addressing a press conference, the minister described lack of governance as the main issue in KP, adding that KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi is paying no attention to the problems of the province and its people, while incidents of terrorism are being regularly reported from the province.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Secretary General Nayyar Bukhari has said the doors of negotiations are open for the PTI “if it abandons the language of terrorism”.

He said terrorism is on the rise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the CM Sohail Aridi-led government’s priority is the release of its jailed leader Imran Khan.

In a statement, he said national security could not be compromised and that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had rejected destructive politics.

The senior PPP leader said the PTI “failed” to even gather 40,000 people for its Islamabad long march despite claiming to mobilise four million supporters.

A case was registered against 30 individuals for taking out a rally for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Kamalia, police said on Thursday.

It may be noted that the Punjab government has banned rallies and public gatherings in the entire province. 

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said on Wednesday that an emergency or governor's rule could be imposed in the province if the country's leadership deemed it necessary to address the security situation.

Speaking on Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath, Kundi said that if the prime minister and president decided such a step was needed to "save the province" from terrorism, it would be enforced.

The governor noted that there had been precedents of emergency and governor's rule in the country, citing past measures taken in Balochistan over law and order concerns.

When asked about the sustainability of any such move, Kundi said the immediate priority was restoring peace.

PTI central spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram has said the party has no agenda to create instability in the country, blaming the federal government for the situation.

Speaking in Peshawar, Akram claimed the federal government was responsible for instability and said negotiations had failed due to its "stubbornness". He said PTI had never shied away from the path of dialogue.