Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday that the KP emergency, together with governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is meant to fight terrorism and is not a political move. Speaking at a conference in Islamabad, he said residents should notice a change within weeks and in the months after that, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.
What Dar said about the KP emergency
The address was the keynote at an international conference titled "Pakistan's evolving terrorism landscape", organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad. Protecting lives and property, he said, is a federal duty in every part of the country. In his view, Sunday's decision was the best course open to the centre.
"It is not a political move," he said. "I can guarantee you." He tied the step to terrorism in KPK, saying the province has been hit for a decade and a half, and added that "this government does not believe in political victimisation."
Governor's rule means the federation runs a province through the governor. Dar said that, over the coming weeks and months, people would see peace return, lives and property protected, and radicalisation brought to an end. He said he was sure the province would be "quite happy" with that outcome.
What he said the conflict has cost
Dar described ending terrorism as a national priority. He put Pakistan's losses in that war at more than 90,000 lives and direct economic damage of over $150 billion, which he said is greater than the country's external debt of $130 billion.
He said the government still intends to dismantle terrorist networks under the National Action Plan and the Azm-e-Istehkam framework, the plans it cites for that campaign. He also spoke of the PDM government, which he said paid a very high political cost by taking office while unpopular, yet in his account kept Pakistan from defaulting.
Sanctuaries, sponsorship and what he asked of partners
He listed recent steps toward Afghanistan: economic representation raised to ambassadorial level, a framework agreement on a feasibility study for the Uzbekistan-Pakistan railway through Afghanistan, and support for the CASA-1000 project, a regional electricity link. Even so, he said, Afghan authorities have yet to take the practical steps expected of them against TTP sanctuaries across the border. The TTP is a banned outfit he said is operating from that side of the frontier.
Fencing, he said, cannot take the place of active operations against militants. He also noted that Pakistan allowed 1,000 humanitarian aid containers into Afghanistan after severe security disruptions along the border.
The problem, he said, reaches beyond Pakistan. "This concern is not Pakistan's alone." He said militant violence does not stop at national borders, and that ignoring the TTP and its patrons would only give them time to grow. He alleged external patronage and state sponsorship of banned outfits, including the TTP and the BLA, cited dossiers submitted to the United Nations, and recalled Indian agent Kulbhushan Jadhav, who he said confessed to involvement in terrorist activities against Pakistan.
He placed that warning next to Pakistan's seat on the UN Security Council for the 2025-2026 term, its chairmanship of SCO-RATS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's regional anti-terror body, and the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement signed in August. The pact, he said, is wholly defensive, follows the self-defence principle in Article 51 of the UN Charter, and is not against international law. He said NATO was created on that same kind of line, that the aim is peace and closer ties in the region, and that clear clauses would let other countries join once the agreement is fully established.
He urged global partners to bolster intelligence sharing, technology transfer and joint action against digital propaganda, cryptocurrency financing and emerging drone threats. "No state or society can combat these challenges alone," he said.
He said people who once spoke of Pakistan as a state fighting terrorism now describe it as a peacemaker. Pakistan, he added, did what it could to mediate between the United States and Iran, bringing them to direct talks for the first time in 47 years. They shook hands and sat together, he said, but there were violations from both sides, and Pakistan has not given up.
The KP emergency, as Dar presented it, will matter to families if peace returns and lives and property are protected. The address was reported by APP. Zaviya has also published his earlier comments on the decision.
