The KP emergency banners controversy surfaced in Gujrat on Sunday, when unidentified banners on billboards across Gujrat showed senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and his son Moonis Elahi beside Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. The displays presented the father and son as supporters of emergency and governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and as backing that step in order to leave sit-in politics behind. Moonis Elahi at once rejected the stance for himself and for his father. Other politicians whose pictures were used on similar banners also refused any link to emergency rule.
Governor's rule is the arrangement under which a province is run through the governor instead of the elected provincial government. The billboards treated emergency, and that arrangement, as causes these figures were endorsing.
What appeared on the billboards
The Elahi banners had company. Matching displays carried PTI-backed independent candidates from two further National Assembly seats in the district: Sajid Yousaf (NA-63) and Syed Wajahat Shah (NA-65). Both said they did not support imposing emergency in KP.
A different banner near Jail Chowk placed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz next to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the PML-Q. It showed former federal minister Wajahat Hussain and his sons — MNA Hussain Elahi, a National Assembly member, and MPA Chaudhry Musa Elahi, a provincial assembly member — as backing the federal government's effort to impose emergency in KP. A spokesman for Musa Elahi objected, and warned the local administration against "trying to mix up" the PML-N leadership with that of the PML-Q.
What the leaders and sources said
Writing on X, Moonis Elahi said he and his father had remained with Imran Khan, as in the past, and "are with him now." He said a point had been reached where their pictures were being placed on banners fraudulently.
Sources said Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, the PTI chairman, had contacted Parvez Elahi — the party's central president and a former Punjab chief minister — and consulted him about talks with the federal government before emergency was imposed in KP. Sources added that some senior opposition leaders also called Elahi while looking for a way to ease the tension between the PTI and the federal government over the protest march. In those calls, the sources said, Elahi pressed them to work for better medical facilities for Imran Khan, for implementation of the Supreme Court's decision concerning Khan's health, and for meetings between Khan, his family and senior party leaders.
A close aide said health challenges had kept Elahi away from Gujrat, his hometown, for several months, even while he stayed in contact with district politics and with the party.
Removal, a returning banner, and a celebration
The banners came down after Moonis Elahi's denial and the objection from the PML-Q spokesman. Sources said the Parvez Elahi camp in the PTI and the Wajahat Hussain faction of the PML-Q both suspected the local administration of putting the banners up. That suspicion has not been confirmed by any official, and the people who displayed the banners remain unidentified.
A banner showing Shujaat Hussain and Asim Munir was later put up again, without the pictures of Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.
Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed Ranian, a PML-Q member of the Punjab Assembly, distributed sweets and celebrated the imposition of emergency and governor's rule in KP at his political office near Dinga in Gujrat district. In the city, no similar banner supporting the federal government's action carried senior PML-Q leaders and ministers Salik Hussain and Shafay Hussain.
People following KP emergency news from this episode are reading about a banner dispute in Gujrat. The KP emergency banners controversy is, on the record so far, a fight over photographs and a message that the people in the photographs have rejected.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Gujrat mein itwar ko billboards par banners lage jin mein Parvez Elahi, Moonis Elahi aur kuch doosre leaders ko KP mein emergency aur governor's rule ka haami dikhaya gaya.
Moonis Elahi ne kaha ke woh aur unke walid Imran Khan ke sath hain, aur unki tasveerain dhoke se in banners par lagi hain.
Jail Chowk wale banner par Musa Elahi ki taraf se aitraz hua; banners hata diye gaye, phir Shujaat Hussain aur Asim Munir wala banner Shehbaz Sharif aur Maryam Nawaz ke baghair wapas aa gaya.
Samajhne wali baat yeh hai ke yeh leaders ki tasveeron aur unke mauqaf ka jhagra hai.
