National Assembly Opposition Leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai on Monday compared Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Balochistan and criticised the emergency and governor’s rule imposed in KP, Dawn reports.
Dawn says the federal government on Sunday imposed an emergency in 12 districts of KP and placed the province under governor’s rule. Achakzai spoke to the media outside Parliament House. The governor’s rule he was discussing is already in force. It is not a proposal.
The Balochistan comparison
Achakzai claimed there was no writ of the state in half of Balochistan. “But you don’t impose it there, because the chief minister there is your favourite,” Dawn quoted him as saying. Senate Opposition Leader Raja Abbas Nasir, speaking alongside him, said that if terrorism and peace were the issue, an emergency should have been imposed in Balochistan first.
Dawn notes that both provinces face terrorism. It cites Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies figures of 199 terrorist attacks across Pakistan in August, 54 of them in KP excluding the merged districts, and 89 in Balochistan.
What he asked the opposition to do
On the KP decision, Achakzai said: “This will not be tolerated. It is the responsibility of everyone who values Pakistan and democracy to unite against this.” He said opposition parties would be asked to announce a democratic struggle from Tuesday in areas where they have influence. “We will not abuse anyone; we will not fire bullets — we don’t have any — and we will not throw even a stone on anyone.” He called the move an “assault on Pakistan’s Constitution and democracy”.
He also said Sohail Afridi had been demanding access to Imran Khan and medical treatment for him, and that the opposition was still willing to negotiate but would “continue its struggle against this system”. He said he would not meet government representatives at the Prime Minister’s House or Office, or in the National Assembly speaker’s chamber, and that he was ready to meet at a personal residence.
Court and the bar
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan, who was present, said he would challenge the emergency and governor’s rule in the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday, and that a parliamentary party meeting the same day would decide how to protest in parliament. He called 11 October a black day in Pakistan’s democratic history.
Separately, the KP Bar Council announced a strike of court proceedings on Tuesday. It said the move appeared aimed at removing the provincial government over political differences, demanded that roads be reopened, and said it would hold an emergency meeting on 17 October.
