Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has given his most direct defence yet of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emergency, telling a media talk in Gujranwala that inaction would have been criminal.
What he said
“We were left with no other option. We understood that we could not simply remain silent and watch bloodshed unfold.”
Staying silent, he said, “would have amounted to criminal negligence”.
The new allegation
He said PTI had “planned widespread violence during the October long march”, and that talks collapsed after consultations with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister.
That is a specific charge and it has not previously been made in these terms by the prime minister. No evidence for it has been published, and no prosecution has been reported on that basis.
The fourth official account of the talks
The government has now offered four descriptions of why negotiations failed, and they differ in emphasis.
The prime minister on 14 October said repeated offers drew no positive response and that it was “now or never”. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told the National Assembly that PTI had carried out a “political suicide attack” on its own government. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the federal side neither walked out nor set a deadline, and waited for hours while the other side consulted. Today the prime minister adds that PTI planned violence.
PTI’s account since 7 October has been that it wanted access to Imran Khan before treating any offer as serious.
No party has published a record of what was offered and when.
On the economy
Shehbaz said Pakistan’s international standing had improved and the domestic economy had begun to stabilise and was moving towards recovery and growth.
This newspaper reported yesterday that the balance of payments swung to a $4.39 billion deficit in September, with imports growing at twice the pace of exports.
[Image: Express via The Express Tribune]
Sources: The Express Tribune
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