Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has blamed Murad Saeed for the breakdown of talks between the federal government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, Naqvi also said former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Sohail Afridi was not the person making decisions for the party.
Naqvi’s remarks also touched on the emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which he defended as lawful, and on allegations linking some PTI members to a banned militant group. The interior minister’s statements were made on the floor of the upper house.
How the talks with PTI broke down
Naqvi said the government had made six changes to a draft agreement and sent it to Afridi, who then passed it to Saeed. That exchange, he said, led to the collapse of the negotiations.
“Murad Saeed sabotaged the entire negotiation process,” the minister said. He added that PTI should have stated clearly at the start if its representatives lacked the authority to decide anything.
Naqvi said members of Afridi’s own cabinet were blaming Saeed for the failure. He also said he made a final phone call at 11:45pm to the other side, urging them to settle the remaining issues, but no deal was reached. He alleged that PTI would not give up its inflexible stance and that a few individuals had taken a misguided step that harmed everyone involved.
Government defends emergency and governor’s rule in KP
Naqvi insisted that the government acted within the Constitution when it imposed emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and had not breached any constitutional provision. He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had reviewed every relevant clause before the decision was taken.
He challenged critics to name any provision that had been violated. According to Naqvi, both the emergency and governor’s rule were imposed inside the constitutional framework.
The minister said the option of emergency or governor’s rule in the province had existed from November 26 and even earlier. However, he said the government chose to keep engaging with PTI before acting. Naqvi also said the government had contacted Barrister Gohar on October 10 and asked him to propose amendments to paragraph four of the draft.
Claims about TTP links and terrorism stance
Naqvi alleged that several PTI members had links with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He said the government would produce evidence when required, stating that the evidence would be shown whenever asked.
He also claimed that 80 per cent of those involved in the current wave of terrorism were coming from Afghanistan. Naqvi said ending terrorism had been part of parliamentary discussions since the first day of negotiations, and that Asad Qaiser had assured him PTI would back Pakistan in the fight against militancy.
Naqvi said he had told Qaiser that the KP government’s position on counterterrorism differed from that assurance. He added that the federal government had attended funerals of people killed in terrorist attacks, while provincial representatives had often stayed away. He said police and security personnel were sacrificing their lives, yet Afridi would deliver speeches against them the following day.
