Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar claimed on Thursday that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Sohail Afridi has been nominated as the new chief minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to ‘support, promote, and enable’ terrorism in the province.
Yesterday, PTI’s Ali Amin Gandapur stated he has resigned from his role as the KP CM while the party’s general secretary, Salman Akram Raja, confirmed that party founder Imran Khan directed Afridi to take on the role of provincial chief executive.
Today, at a press conference in Islamabad with Ikhtiar Wali Khan, the coordinator to the prime minister on information for KP affairs, Tarar insisted that PTI ‘enables terrorists’.
“These handful of terrorists are enabled by a person sitting in jail who is the chief sponsor of terrorism,” the information minister claimed, saying that PTI founder’s support for terrorists is evident from old interviews.
Tarar said the contention with Ali Amin Gandapur was that he does not do what he’s told, i.e., “enable and support terrorists and prevent actions against them”.
Referring to Afridi as a “fugitive” and “criminal-minded”, the information minister further said he has been brought in to support and give a free hand to terrorists in KP.
“Let me tell this with clarity to the KP govt and PTI,” he said. “Pakistan’s security policy is made in Islamabad and will continue to be so. It will not be made in Kabul. We will not allow terrorists to take full control.”
Tarar alleged that PTI and its founder caused great damage to the country when they “brought in and settled terrorists” in the country, adding that PTI has been in governance for the past 12 years in KP and terrorism has again peaked.
The information minister also referred to the verdict in the London high court earlier today, which ruled against YouTuber and former Pakistan Army officer retired Major Adil Farooq Raja in a high-profile defamation case filed by retired Brigadier Rashid Nasir, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer, saying that the verdict was a “win for Pakistan”.
Meanwhile, Ikhtiar Wali said KP is “Pakistan’s most sensitive province”, besieged by terrorism from one side and bad governance from the other.