ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Friday accused the opposition PTI of initiating ‘confidence-building measures with the TTP’, stating that they didn’t call the latter ‘terrorists’ as they were afraid of being attacked.

“The spokespersons of the political party are afraid of talking about the terrorist group, as they have taken exemption from it by extending an ‘olive branch’ to them,” said Tarar while addressing a press conference alongside former ANP senator Zahid Khan.

He also said the PTI’s social media accounts did not utter a single word for the martyrs of the armed forces just because they were afraid of terrorists.

The information minister expressed these views after playing a clip from a Hum News TV programme in which the host openly called the TTP a terrorist group, while adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Shafiullah Jan, insisted there are “groups within the TTP” and among them those who were “against the state are terrorists”.

“They are afraid of saying anything regarding the TTP,” Mr Tarar reiterated, and then cited the example of ex-lawmaker of ANP Samar Haroon Bilour who spoke courageously against terrorists in the assembly even after losing her husband and father-in-law in terrorist attacks.

Information minister slams lack of facilities for education, healthcare in KP

While blaming the PTI for “bringing back terrorists” and settling them in KP after elimination of terrorism, the minister said, “Their leader [incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan] used to call terrorists martyrs.”

Smuggling, misogyny

Mr Tarar said that a political-terror-crime nexus prevailed in KP. “Political elements have a nexus with terrorists, and crime links them through the smuggling of oil, drugs, consumer goods, timber, and tobacco,” he said, adding that it forms a bridge with political leaders at one end and terrorists at the other.

“PTI does not condemn terrorists because they earn money for political leaders and assist them in running their businesses,” he said.

He challenged the PTI to share the names of ten terrorist groups that were “good, pro-Pakistani, and whose services are for the country”.

He said, “When it comes to maligning women and spreading hatred against them, they speak fluently and target them. However, they don’t speak against terrorists because they have weapons.”

‘Governance in KP’

Mr Tarar said the federal and provincial governments of Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan, unlike KP government, were making efforts by building schools, colleges, and hospitals. The governments have run electric buses, constructed modern bus stops, and built modern IT institutions.

“The governance in KP has collapsed,” he said, adding that when the ruling PTI in the province was asked about health and education facilities, they were unaware.

He said that land had been allocated for Benazir Hospital in KP 13 years ago, but it could not be constructed.

The federal minister said provincial officials and ministers did not visit KP public hospitals for treatment. “Most patients from KP go to the Rawalpindi Institute of Card­iology, as they have no options in the province,” he said, adding that the PTI had not provided them with any facilities in more than a decade.

He said South Waziristan faces a scarcity of doctors, with only one male doctor available in the entire district. “The district does not have a single female doctor,” he added.

“The PTI couldn’t provide a system of drinking water in Tank district, as animals and residents drink water from the same pond,” he said.

About education in the province, he said, “At least 4.9 million children and teenagers aged five to 17 years are out of school, with 22,000 schools lacking basic facilities.” Also, he said, four districts in the province lacked a single college for girls.

“More than a dozen universities in KP don’t have any staff, and the staff in the remaining universities are not being paid,” he said.

On the other hand, Mr Tarar added, scandals involving billions of rupees had emerged in Kohistan, with PTI office-bearers implicated.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2026