Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has told Parliament that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi declined to support the campaign against militancy because of the political price he would have to pay. Naqvi made the claim while addressing a joint sitting of Parliament, where he said the province had seen dozens of terrorist incidents.
Naqvi said the federal government had repeatedly tried to work with the provincial administration, but that those efforts had met resistance. He presented his account as a response to the chief minister’s stance, which he described as a refusal to take part in the wider effort.
Naqvi’s account of the Peshawar Apex Committee meeting
Naqvi said an Apex Committee meeting was held in Peshawar in February this year. He added that the federal government had struggled to arrange the gathering, and that its purpose was to signal that terrorism would be confronted collectively.
He urged lawmakers to read the press release issued after the meeting to judge for themselves what it said. Naqvi also said security personnel were martyred on the day of the meeting, and that he had asked the chief minister to attend their funeral prayers and went with him to the gathering.
According to Naqvi, that was the last occasion on which Afridi attended the funeral prayers of a martyred security person.
Allegations over rhetoric and a plan for police in five districts
Naqvi referred to a television programme in which the host repeatedly asked Shafi Jan to condemn terrorists. He claimed Shafi Jan refused, even when the host named two or three militants and asked him to denounce them.
The minister also said a plan had been drawn up to strengthen police in five districts of the province. He claimed Islamabad had asked Afridi to lead the fight against militancy, but that the chief minister was unwilling to do so. Naqvi further alleged that whenever security personnel were killed, Afridi delivered speeches against state institutions in the same district the following day.
Referring to the imposition of Governor’s Rule and an emergency in the province, Naqvi said, “The people sitting in KP forced us to take these steps.”
Claims about PTI negotiations and military operations
Naqvi further claimed that the government had accepted all of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s demands during negotiations and had been ready to provide everything the party sought.
He alleged, however, that Sohail Afridi had never accompanied the military on an operation. According to Naqvi, the chief minister had said he could not bear the political consequences of such participation and feared it would damage his political standing. These remarks are the minister’s own claims and have not been independently verified in the report.
