PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali on Thursday said the Election Commission of Pakistan should take all stakeholders into confidence before deciding about the schedule for the provincial assembly’s elections.

“It is the ECP’s job to hold elections. If the law and order situation here improves, he won’t have any issues with the provincial assembly polls being held even within 75 days instead of the maximum 90 days. TheECP is free to decide about the election schedule after getting feedback from the police and other relevant agencies about the security situation in the province,” the governor told a presser at the Chief Minister’s House here.

Accompanied by caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan and cabinet members, Mr Ali also said a multiparty conference should be held to develop consensus about measures to address security and economic challenges in the country.

“Today, the state is in danger, so the need of the hour is to agree on a formula just like all political parties did after the 2014 Army Public School terrorist attack,” he said.

Alleges PTI telling lies about state to serve political ends

The governor said under last prime minister Imran Khan’s government, presiding officers mysteriously went missing during the February 2021 by-election in Daska.

“If ballot papers cannot be transported from Daska to Islamabad safely, then how it is possible to transport them from Waziristan to Peshawar,” he said.

Mr Ali lambasted the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for “telling lies about the State” to serve political ends and declared the act more serious than treason.

He said Imran Khan’s party was spreading hate against armed forces in public meetings besides politicising the martyrdom of police.

Referring to Wednesday’s protest by police personnel in the province, the governor wondered if it was not a dangerous act for the security and integrity of the country when personnel of a department took to the streets with their minds “clouded against a force.”

He said the opposition parties won six seats of mayor and tehsil council chairmen in Peshawar alone when the PTI ruled the centre and the province as well.

Mr Ali said KP’s debt liabilities totalled Rs78 billion when the PTI took over but they surged to Rs900 billion by the end of the party’s nine years rule in the province.

He said 465 terrorist attacks had taken place in the province since 2018 killing 365 police personnel and injuring 404.

The governor said the last provincial chief minister Mahmood Khan of the PTI didn’t attend the funeral prayers of a single fallen police official.

He also criticised the PTI leaders for what he claimed absenting themselves from funerals of the Peshawar police lines mosque bombing.

Mr Ali alleged that under a conspiracy, social media was used to create public distrust against forces and state.

On the occasion, the chief minister said it was the ECP’s job to hold elections in the province and that he was there only to help it do that job.

“I will follow the law and Constitution,” he said.

Regarding the province’s financial situation, the chief minister said he had held a meeting with the prime minister and discussed due payments to the province, especially net hydel profit, and issues of the counter-terrorism department.

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif assured me that the province’s requirements would be taken care of despite the financial challenges faced by the centre,” he said.

Mr Khan said the prime minister had also asked him to submit a summary to him about it.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2023