Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan on Tuesday congratulated his party’s lawmakers for a successful transition of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government and vowed the party will not act against the interests of the people of the province.
In a message posted on Khan’s official X account, Khan said the manner of C.M.-designate Sohail Afridi’s election was commendable. He also praised outgoing chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur, noting he had resigned “thrice” without any hesitation, and urged Afridi to perform as per his aspirations.
“The PTI is the largest political party in Pakistan,” said the message. “Branding people associated with the party as traitors just because they do not agree with a certain policy is an extremely dangerous act,” he said, calling for an end to the practice of labelling people “anti-state.” Reiterating that it was his right to criticize any policy he deemed against the people, democracy or the national interest, he maintained that the PTI is answerable only to people of KP who elected it and not the DG ISPR.
“Therefore, we will never go against the interests of the people of Pakistan and the province,” he said.
Stressing that he had no enmity with the Army, Khan reiterated: “The army is mine, the country is mine and its people are also mine.” He claimed he felt sorrow whenever soldiers were martyred while fighting against terrorism and lamented that ongoing unrest led to the killing of people “on both sides.”
He also reaffirmed his belief that military operations cannot end terrorism. “Our principled position is that military operations in KP are unacceptable because innocent people are martyred in the name of ‘collateral damage’ and are displaced from their areas,” he said. “For decades, military operations are being conducted but this scourge still remains. Every year, precious blood is being spilt; sometimes Army and police personnel are martyred, other times innocent civilians lose their lives in terrorist incidents,” he said.
“I have always said that in order to completely eradicate terrorism, an effective, comprehensive strategy based on political insight is needed instead of decisions taken behind closed doors,” he said, adding this could only be achieved through consultation with political representatives and the KP government.
“The issue of terrorism cannot be solved without dialogue with the Afghan government,” he said and directed the new KP government to talk to relevant stakeholders and formulate an effective and comprehensive strategy against terrorism to ensure long-term peace in the province.
Khan’s latest missive follows a press conference by the DG ISPR in which he had blamed a failure of governance in KP for resurgent terrorism. He also emphasized that appeasing terrorists through dialogue is not a sound strategy. The message further follows unprovoked aggression from the Afghan Taliban along the shared border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.