PM Shehbaz defends Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor's rule, blames stalled talks

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif defended governor's rule and emergency measures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, telling a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz parliamentary party meeting that holding the decision back would have cost the province more.

The two reports of the speech differ on where it took place. Daily Times said Sharif addressed PML-N parliamentary members and regional office-bearers in Islamabad. Minute Mirror said he spoke at a PML-N parliamentary party meeting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Sharif said the federal government spent 48 hours trying to settle the political dispute through negotiation committees of Pakistan Peoples Party and PML-N representatives. The talks produced a draft, but the approval required from the provincial political leadership did not arrive as security conditions worsened, he said, and the federal cabinet then acted.

He attacked the 13-year record of the party that governed the province, asking how many universities and hospitals it had built. Peshawar, Kohistan, Hazara and the southern districts still faced serious problems from neglect, he said, according to Minute Mirror.

Daily Times reported him saying Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had received more than Rs800 billion under the one percent NFC Award allocation since 2010, and asking why Safe City projects and counter-terrorism department capacity stayed badly funded. That report said federal auditors will review resource allocations to see that money reaches frontline police units.

On militancy, Sharif alleged that terrorists had been brought back from Afghanistan and resettled in Pakistan in 2019 and 2020, and that the resurgence had damaged the country. The government asked political forces to join a common front against terrorism, he said, and the appeal did not get the response it sought.

He said the political and military leadership had worked to steady the economy, and that international developments and the Gulf war had driven energy prices up sharply. His government's fuel subsidy scheme has reached about 13 million people, he said, backed by an allocation of Rs75 billion.

Sharif recalled the 2013 general election, when Nawaz Sharif allowed the majority party to form the provincial government, and said his party had always backed democratic practice in the province.

Daily Times reported that emergency administrative measures will stay in force while legislative mechanisms are reviewed.