Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday dismissed reports of the government considering imposing governor’s rule in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, stressing the province needs “people’s rule, not governor’s rule.”
Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, he said there are no plans to impose governor’s rule in the province. Reports that the center was considering the action spiked after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the government was willing to consider “any legal option” to deter the PTI from blocking Islamabad.
According to Tarar, the PTI often talks about resolving tensions through dialogue but questioned who the federal government should engage for this. “The government has repeatedly offered talks. Political tensions can only be resolved through dialogue and constitutional and legal means,” he said, warning that the PTI would not be permitted to disrupt law and order in Islamabad.
“We reject the politics of violence and confrontation,” he said, citing orders of the Islamabad High Court barring any activity that bars roads or affects citizens’ rights. He regretted that if the provincial government believed that people had voted for it to secure the release of an imprisoned individual, it risked pushing the province backward.
Maintaining that Imran Khan’s release can only come about through legal means, he noted that despite being in power for over a decade, the PTI had failed to undertake any significant development of the province. He said questions should also be raised about issues relating to deforestation and mining.
Tarar alleged that taxpayers in KP were not receiving the facilities falling within the provincial government’s responsibilities, stressing a chief minister’s job is to serve their province, not incite them for protests. He also questioned the absence of members of the provincial government in funerals of security personnel and civilians martyred in terrorist incidents. “Public resources should not be spent on rallies, processions and protest activities by the PTI. Public resources should be spent on the public,” he reiterated.
Referring to the Kohat suicide bombing, the minister said counterterrorism operations would continue and nobody would be allowed to disturb peace and order. He alleged that evidence showed Afghan territory was being used in some terrorist incidents and said Pakistan had responded to it by targeting terrorists camps along the Pak-Afghan border.