Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday wrote to his Punjab counterpart, Maryam Nawaz, alleging “ill-treatment” during his visit to Lahore over the weekend.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader visited Lahore from Dec. 26-28, addressing the party’s lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly, visiting Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence, and touring various parts of the city in a bid to launch a “street movement” on the directions of former Prime Minister Khan.
During his visit to the Punjab Assembly, an altercation broke out between members of his delegation and security officials, with the latter claiming a preapproved list did not include “strangers.”
“I write to you with deep concern and strong exception to the manner in which my recent visit to the province of Punjab was handled, and the events that deliberately unfolded during and after the visit,” wrote Afridi. He claimed the sequence of actions he witnessed was neither accidental nor administrative in nature, adding it was wholly incompatible with the dignity of constitutional office and the spirit of inter-provincial respect.
“As the elected chief minister of KP, representing over 40 million citizens, I undertook the visit in that capacity. Regrettably, the treatment accorded to me was marked by discourtesy, unnecessary hostility, and protocol deviations that cannot be justified under any accepted standard of inter provincial engagement,” read the letter.
He claimed the extraordinary and excessive security posture, including sweeping detentions and visible enforcement theatrics, projected an unmistakable message of intimidation rather than cooperation. “Such measures were neither proportionate nor warranted and conveyed an intent that went well beyond legitimate security considerations,” said Afridi.
The chief minister alleged that even public places, including food streets and markets, were completely sealed during his visit to Lahore. “Even more disturbing was the coordinated and malicious social media campaign that accompanied and followed my visit,” he said, referring to insinuations linking his administration to narcotics smuggling. These allegations, wrote Afridi, were amplified through accounts widely perceived to be aligned with, or operating under the “umbrella of the Punjab government.”
The use of state-linked digital platforms to circulate or amplify defamatory insinuations against a sitting C.M. of another province is unacceptable, irresponsible, and institutionally indefensible, he said.
Such actions undermine federal harmony, erode public trust in provincial institutions, and sets a dangerous precedent where constitutional officeholders are targeted through insinuation rather than addressed through formal channels, he added.
He wrote that such an approach was beneath the status of a provincial government and damaged the collective credibility of the federating unit. He hoped that the Punjab government would ensure that such conduct, administrative as well as digital, is neither repeated nor normalized, and that accountability is enforced where required.