PM Shehbaz Takes Allies Into Confidence on KP Emergency, Says Failed Talks Left No Option but Constitutional Step as Coalition Partners Assure Full Support

ISLAMABAD: The criticism of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emergency has not let up, but Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spent most of Tuesday making his case to the parties that keep his government standing. He addressed the PML-N parliamentary party, sat down with an MQM-P delegation, and then briefed leaders of the PML-Q, the Balochistan Awami Party, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party and PML-Zia on why the province was placed under emergency and governor’s rule.

We tried everything, and got nothing back

The prime minister’s line was consistent through the day: the Centre did everything it could to avoid this step. The provincial leadership was offered talks and cooperation again and again, negotiations were held in good faith, and no positive response came back. Recalling the federal cabinet meeting that took the decision, he said the sense in the room had been that it was now or never. The decision, he conceded, was an extremely difficult one, but it had been taken in the interest of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The silence on terrorism, raised again

Shehbaz returned to the charge that sits at the heart of the whole crisis. Terrorist attacks in the province are rising, ordinary citizens and security personnel are being targeted, yet the provincial government, in his telling, neither speaks out clearly against terrorist groups nor acts effectively against them. He also took aim at the PTI’s long march, saying protest politics had put the country’s recovering economy at risk. The Centre’s side added that more than Rs800 billion had been provided to the province under the NFC framework to fight terrorism.

Allies fall in behind the government

The MQM-P delegation was led by party convener and Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, with Health Minister Mustafa Kamal among those present, and it assured the prime minister of full support for the government’s decisions on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The delegation from the other allied parties voiced its backing as well. Shehbaz told the meetings that a technocratic advisory council had been formed to assist the governor, and a National Assembly resolution on the emergency was expected on Wednesday.