Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told the Senate on Tuesday that a negotiated deal could have averted the emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, accusing PTI leader Murad Saeed of sabotaging the talks between the federal government and the party.
Naqvi said the government had made six amendments to a draft agreement and sent it to then-KP chief minister Sohail Afridi, who forwarded it to Murad Saeed, after which the negotiations collapsed.
“Murad Saeed sabotaged the entire negotiation process,” the interior minister said, adding that PTI should have made it clear from the outset if its representatives did not have the authority to make decisions.
He said he made a final phone call at 11:45pm urging the other side to resolve the outstanding issues, but no agreement could be reached. Naqvi added that members of Afridi’s own cabinet had blamed Murad Saeed for the outcome.
Defending the emergency and governor’s rule, Naqvi said the government could not remain passive while soldiers and police personnel continued to sacrifice their lives in the fight against terrorism. He claimed around 80 per cent of those behind terrorist incidents were coming from Afghanistan.
The minister further alleged that some PTI leaders had contacts with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and evidence of contacts and financial transactions between terrorists and some PTI members, saying the evidence would be presented at an appropriate time.
Naqvi said the government had the authority to take such a step on November 26 but had refrained from doing so at the time. He added that counterterrorism was the government’s sole agenda in the talks.
Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas rejected the imposition of emergency rule in KP, arguing that political disputes should not be linked to security matters and questioning why such a step had been proposed only for KP.
