PM lambasts PTI’s KP governance, defends governor’s rule to ‘protect lives, economy’

Business Recorder · 31/10/2026، 2:56:02 PM

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday defended the imposition of governor’s rule and emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying the decision was necessary to protect the lives of people, the province’s economy and society, as well as the country. Addressing members and office-bearers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) parliamentary party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the prime minister said the government had tried to resolve matters through negotiations, but its proposals were not accepted, according to the PM Office. He said a joint committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party and PML-N held 48 hours of talks, after which the government waited for approval of the agreed draft, but it did not come. “Had we delayed the decision, the province could have suffered further losses,” he said, adding that the government had been left with no other option. Shehbaz also invited political forces to join hands against terrorism, saying the government had offered to fight the menace collectively, as it had done in the past, but the offer was not heeded. He said Pakistan had suffered heavy human and economic losses in the war against terrorism, with around 80,000 people killed and economic losses estimated at $150 billion to $200 billion. The prime minister recalled that terrorism had been eliminated from the country by 2017-18 through joint efforts by the nation and state institutions. He said the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along with the police, armed forces and political leaders, had made immense sacrifices. Referring to the resurgence of militancy, Shehbaz alleged that terrorists had been brought back from Afghanistan and resettled in Swat in 2019 and 2020. He said thousands more people had been killed in terrorist attacks over the past two and a half years, including police personnel and members of law enforcement agencies and the armed forces. He said the government had repeatedly called for joint action against terrorism but its appeals had not been accepted. The prime