Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi reached out to Awami National Party chief Senator Aimal Wali Khan about a possible emergency or Governor’s Rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, sources said. According to the same sources, the two leaders asked for his backing for Governor’s Rule in the province.
Aimal Wali Khan’s response to the proposal
Sources said Khan turned down any support for either an emergency or Governor’s Rule in the province. He reportedly suggested that the PTI-led provincial government be allowed to finish its constitutional term.
Sources also said Naqvi offered to appoint former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti as the province’s governor. Khan’s position, however, remained that the elected administration should be given the time it is constitutionally owed.
Naqvi says efforts to avert the move have failed
Earlier, Naqvi ruled out any way of avoiding an emergency or governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, suggesting that attempts to prevent it had reached a dead end. Speaking informally to reporters, he said he had made every possible effort to stop such a decision.
Naqvi directed journalists to PTI chairman Barrister Gohar, saying Gohar could explain how far he had gone to prevent the situation. When asked whether reconciliation was still possible after JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman met the prime minister, he again pointed reporters to Gohar and asked how the matter could be avoided. Sources also say Fazlur Rehman opposes both an emergency and the introduction of Governor’s Rule in the province.
