Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday said the Centre tried to take the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on board in the counterterror fight and provided details of the communication between the two sides to resolve their differences.

The press conference by government ministers, including Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, and Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry, comes shortly after the Centre imposed emergency in KP citing the provincial government’s lack of efforts to combat terrorism.

The Centre and the PTI — which was in power in KP — have been at odds over various issues, particularly on the counterterrorism policy, which was one of the main reasons behind the breakdown of their Oct 3 talks.

At the outset of Sunday’s briefing, Naqvi said, “Today was not an easy day for us. For over one month, we continuously tried to take the KP government on board. I was personally in touch with them in the background; our only goal was to onboard them so that we could fight together against terrorism.”

The minister claimed that “demands” the PTI put forward were already being considered before the opposition party announced its long march towards Islamabad. “Some of their own people could not understand why the long march was taking place.”

He recalled that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wanted to hold talks with the National Assembly opposition leader last month and proposed forming a committee but the government did not get any confirmation.

“We were trying our best to hold the meeting before the prime minister left so that the situation could be diffused,” he said, noting that a committee for the Oct 3 talks was formed later.

According to the interior minister, the consultations took place for two days and credited PTI MNA Asad Qaiser for saying with “clarity that it is not possible that we take even a step back on terrorism”.

“We will not do it for you; we will do it for Pakistan, and we will fight united against terrorism,” Naqvi quoted Qaiser as saying, adding that he requested the ex-NA speaker to take the KP government on board.

The minister then reiterated that an agreement draft was revised four times, after which the government negotiation committee found out a new draft had been presented by the opposition team.

“Although the previous day the chief minister had authorised them to agree on their behalf, the next day it all changed,” Naqvi said.

More to follow