PTI founder Imran Khan said on Tuesday that his party had been given a mandate by the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and would not act against their interests.

Imran’s remarks come after Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on Friday vowed the country would not ‘mortgage’ the security of its people with any country.

He said “appeasement of terrorists and their facilitators was not and never would be a policy”, while addressing KP’s security situation in Peshawar. Responding to Imran’s call — from jail — for talks with the Afghan Taliban to end bloodshed, the DG ISPR said the state and forces would not be swayed by political distortions.

He added that no single person — “most responsible for bringing terrorism back to KP” — could dictate national security. He also cited “governance gaps” in the province’s infrastructure and counter-terror funding.

In a post on Imran’s official X account last night — which he does not operate himself — the PTI founder congratulated KP MPAs on the transition in governance after Sohail Afridi’s election as the new chief minister.

“The way members of the KP Assembly voted for my nominated chief minister, without any ifs or buts, is commendable,” he said.

He also paid tribute to outgoing Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who resigned “not once but thrice” without any hesitation.

He also gave a special message to the new KP chief minister, calling him his “opening batsman” and telling him to play as such.

“The PTI is the largest political party in Pakistan. Branding people associated with the party as traitors just because they do not agree with a certain policy is an extremely dangerous act,” Imran said, calling for an end to the practice of labelling people as “anti-state”.

“As a politician, it is my right to criticise any policy that is against the interest of the people, the country’s integrity and democracy. I have and will continue to oppose every policy against national interests,” the ex-premier said.

“The PTI has been given a mandate by the people of KP and we are answerable to them, not the DG ISPR. Therefore, we will never go against the interests of the people of Pakistan and the province,” he added.

Imran asserted that he did not have an enmity with the army, saying: “The army is mine, the country is mine and its people are also mine.”

He went on to say that several members of his family were part of the armed forces, adding that he felt sorrow when soldiers were martyred while fighting against terrorism.

“But unrest still persists and our people are killed on both sides,” he said.

“History has proven that military operations alone are not the solution for terrorism. Our principled position is that military operations in KP are unacceptable because innocent people are martyred in the name of ‘collateral damage’ and are displaced from their areas,” Imran said.

“For decades, military operations are being conducted but this scourge still remains. Every year, precious blood is being spilt; sometimes army and police personnel are martyred, other times innocent civilians lose their lives in terrorist incidents,” he added.

“I have always said that in order to completely eradicate terrorism, an effective, comprehensive strategy based on political insight is needed instead of decisions taken behind closed doors,” he said. The PTI founder further said that any policy made without the input and consultation of political representatives and the KP government was unacceptable.

Imran asserted that all relevant stakeholders should be taken on board when formulating a policy against terrorism, be it local tribes in the province, the KP government, the federal government or the Afghan government.

“The issue of terrorism cannot be solved without dialogue with the Afghan government,” he said. The PTI founder then directed the new KP government to talk to relevant stakeholders and formulate an effective and comprehensive strategy against terrorism to ensure long-term peace in the province.

Imran’s statement comes after Afghan Taliban forces launched an unprovoked attack on posts situated on the Pak-Afghan border over the weekend. The ISPR said 23 Pakistani troops were martyred and more than 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists were killed when Islamabad responded.

Afghanistan claimed it carried out the attack as a “retaliatory” measure, accusing Islamabad of conducting air strikes in its territory last week. For its part, Islamabad has not confirmed whether it was behind the air strikes but maintains that Kabul should “stop harbouring the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan on its soil”.

Fighting flared up again last night between Pakistani forces and the Afghan Taliban in KP’s Kurram district, state media reported.