PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha on Thursday alleged that 98pc of the recent negotiations between the federal government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had succeeded, but Chief Minister Sohail Afridi “vetoed” the process by objecting to a proposal for action against terrorists in the province.

During a news conference at Peshawar Press Club, Mr Bacha said the PTI leadership wanted to see the governor’s rule or an emergency imposed in the province so that it could present itself as a “political victim” and seek political face-saving in the next general elections.

Accompanied by PPP MPAs Ahmad Karim Kundi and Shazia Tehmas, provincial information secretary Amjad Afridi, the party’s provincial chief insisted that his party had already made it clear that it neither called for the governor’s rule nor an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He criticised the provincial cabinet for targeting PPP leaders and said that President Asif Ali Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari should instead have been thanked for providing a forum for negotiations between the federal government and the PTI.

“The cabinet’s meeting was apparently convened only to criticise the PPP leadership and Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, particularly over the meeting convened by the governor to seek briefings from relevant institutions on the law and order situation in the province. The meeting should have been convened a month earlier to restore peace in the province,” he said.

Mr Bacha claimed that the chief minister had objected to the point concerning action against terrorists during the negotiations with the Centre, thus, causing the talks to fail.

He also criticised the chief minister for leading a protest march from areas facing serious security challenges. He said it was difficult for political parties to hold public gatherings in some of those areas due to terrorist threats.

Referring to the PTI’s protest march, the PPP leader sarcastically said that the convoy led by Mr Afridi appeared set to travel around Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and perhaps even Afghanistan but wouldn’t be able to go beyond Swabi.

He referred to the killing of five Federal Board of Revenue officials in an area through which the PTI’s march had passed and said terrorist groups considered political leaders and public gatherings in such areas their prime targets.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2026