By Staff Reporter
KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: The government had made up its mind to impose emergency or governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and was dissuaded only by calls for a political solution, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has said, a day before the opposition is due to march on the capital.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose party backs the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said Islamabad had been “100 percent ready” to act in the province, which is run by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
“In my opinion, the federal government had made up its mind and was 100 percent ready,” Bhutto Zardari told an event in Karachi on Saturday. “They wanted to immediately impose emergency or governor’s rule in KP.”
He said the federal government had been in contact with his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, and the PPP over the deteriorating security situation, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where militant attacks are blamed on groups operating from Afghanistan.
Bhutto Zardari accepted that governor’s rule or an emergency was a constitutional tool. But he said the PPP believed that, “before dropping this constitutional atomic bomb”, political parties should exhaust the chance of finding a political answer to terrorism.
He did not rule the step out. If the provincial government failed to treat terrorism and law and order as a priority, and if allegations that it was not standing with the federation proved true, “then we may be forced to declare an emergency or governor’s rule”, he said.
Talks overshadowed by Sunday’s deadline
The comments came as the government, the PPP and the opposition held a second day of talks at Parliament House, chaired by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq. They were aimed at defusing the PTI’s planned march on Islamabad on 4 October, which is meant to press for Khan’s release. The march was originally scheduled for 27 September.
The second round began on Saturday after a delay of nearly three hours. Friday’s opening session, held in the Speaker’s chamber, produced no result. A heated exchange during that meeting forced Sadiq to urge both sides to show restraint.
By Saturday evening, Pakistani media reported progress. Citing sources, they said the two sides were consulting a draft agreement, with a written accord being prepared for signing. The same sources said the government had agreed to let the opposition leaders Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas meet Khan in jail.
The picture remained unsettled, however. Local media reported that Achakzai told PTI leaders no decision on the march could be announced until they had met Khan. Earlier on Saturday, the PTI said the call for the march was “intact”. Sources also told Geo that PTI committee members had suggested the march could be postponed rather than called off if the government made progress in the talks. At the time of the latest reports, no formal announcement had been made on the march.
Bhutto Zardari said the PPP wanted talks with the PTI before any decision on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He urged all parties to engage the PTI, and urged the PTI in turn to drop the march and acknowledge what he called the success of its protest.
“The capital has been shut for 10 days,” he said, arguing that the party had made its point even though it had not marched. “A political party or worker should see that you have achieved success on the political stage.”
The government has rejected reports that roads in Islamabad have been closed, saying containers have been placed only as a precaution.
Threat of emergency rule
The prospect of emergency rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has hung over the dispute for days. On 21 September, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the government was consulting the Law Ministry on legal options for the province, including governor’s rule, should the PTI go ahead. Federal minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry has since hinted at an emergency, citing worsening law and order.
The province’s chief minister, Sohail Afridi, has insisted the march will happen “at all costs”. The PTI chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, has urged the government to answer the march with political engagement rather than governor’s rule. Party sources told one television channel the PTI had planned a sit-in outside the governor’s house in Peshawar if rule from the centre were imposed. At a party meeting on Saturday, some members suggested quitting the national and provincial assemblies if an emergency were declared, sources said.
Mr Bhutto Zardari said the threat from Afghanistan, and what he called India’s “hideous role” in supporting it, was apparent. He urged politicians not to see terrorism “through a political lens”. Both Delhi and the Taliban authorities in Kabul have previously rejected such allegations.
“We want to come together to fight terrorism and not view it as a political issue, but a national one,” he said, recalling a recent meeting between Mr Sharif and President Zardari at Aiwan-i-Sadr in Islamabad. National security, institutional cooperation on law and order and the possible use of emergency powers were among the topics discussed.
The former foreign minister called for a written agreement between the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments setting out “how they will combat terrorism together”. He said any political deadlock “needs to be kept separate from issues like terrorism or national interests”. He warned that worsening conditions would not remain confined to one province.
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