“Today’s Decision Regarding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Was Not Easy for Us,” Says Mohsin Naqvi

Islamabad (Qudrat Daily): Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, commenting on the imposition of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has said that today was not an easy day for us. For more than a month, continuous and sincere efforts were made to keep the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in confidence and to bring them along in the war against terrorism.

Addressing a press conference in the federal capital Islamabad, the Interior Minister said that the demands of those undertaking the long march were already being addressed even before the announcement of the long march. Whether it was meetings with the PTI founder, medical treatment, or other matters, everything was proceeding in the agreed manner. Even PTI’s own leaders and workers could not understand why the long march was announced in the first place.

Mohsin Naqvi stated that detailed negotiations were held with the PTI leadership continuously for two days, and until 11:45 PM last night, he himself was in contact with them. During the negotiations, Asad Qaiser had assured that they would not retreat even a single step in the war against terrorism. In the negotiation draft, we made five to six changes at PTI’s request, but later it suddenly came to light that a completely different draft had been presented from their side.

He said that several meetings were also held with Sohail Afridi. In the last call, he contacted them at 11:45 PM and said that we still have an opportunity to avert this worsening situation. Things have gone very far, but the morning’s action could somehow be postponed. However, regrettably, no positive response was received from the other side, after which the government had no option left but to take a constitutional step.