PESHAWAR: Ninety-eight per cent of the PTI’s negotiations with the federal government had succeeded, then the talks collapsed over a single clause. PPP provincial president Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha has said Chief Minister Sohail Afridi objected to the clause on action against terrorists and vetoed the deal.
Bacha spoke at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club earlier this week, flanked by other party leaders. He said the PPP had provided the forum for the negotiations between the government and the PTI. Yet in the previous day’s cabinet meeting, PPP leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were subjected to severe criticism. The two leaders should have been thanked instead, “but that did not happen,” he said.
He accused the chief minister of launching his long march from areas under terrorist siege and touring the province from a container. Afridi was now holding cabinet meetings only to criticise others, Bacha said. The chief minister had targeted those who facilitated talks with the Centre and opposed the meeting in which Governor Faisal Karim Kundi received a briefing from institutions on law and order.
The account differs sharply from the PTI’s version. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the talks collapsed after nine commitments were dropped, and the two rounds of talks held ahead of the October 4 march ended without a deal. Naqvi had accused the chief minister of sabotaging the negotiations, while the PTI maintains that reconciliation is impossible without Imran Khan.
‘Situation extremely precarious’
Bacha said the governor’s meeting on law and order should have been called a month earlier. The PTI was not sincere towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he argued.
“The situation in the province is extremely precarious,” he said. “In such circumstances the Constitution allows the governor to play his role, but the PTI chief minister is completely unfamiliar with the Constitution.”
He claimed the long march convoy was now circling different cities of the province under the chief minister’s leadership from a container. “It seems this caravan will also tour Afghanistan,” he said. This was the same terrorism the PPP had always opposed, he added, the terrorism that martyred Benazir Bhutto and eight of the party’s MPAs.
How the PTI talks failed over the terror clause
Bacha said the PPP stood for the survival of parliament. He advised the chief minister to study the Constitution. In the past 13 years, the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had delivered nothing, he said. It remained absorbed in Imran Khan’s narrative and had no interest in the problems of the people.
Soldiers and police personnel were sacrificing their lives fighting terrorists for the country’s survival, he said, while the province’s rulers were misleading the youth. Unemployment was widespread in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and corruption was at its peak, he claimed. Contracts worth billions of rupees were being awarded to favourites for crores.
He held the PTI leadership primarily responsible for the deterioration of the province’s political situation. If any political change occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he warned, full responsibility would rest with the PTI and the chief minister.
Bilawal had earlier welcomed the dialogue between the government and the opposition. His party colleague’s remarks now underline how far apart the two sides remain, with the march on the roads and no fresh round of talks announced. The full Tribune report on Bacha’s press conference carries his detailed remarks.
Frequently asked questions
What was the terror clause?
It was the clause on action against terrorists in the draft agreement between the government and the PTI. Bacha says Afridi objected to it and vetoed the talks when 98 per cent of the negotiations had succeeded.
Who is Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha?
He is the PPP’s provincial president in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He says the PPP provided the forum for the government-PTI negotiations.
Will the talks resume?
No fresh round has been announced. The PTI’s long march continues through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and both sides blame each other for the deadlock.
