Federal Interior Minister Senator Mohsin Naqvi has said that some PTI members have direct links with the Taliban, adding that the decision to impose an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was not an easy one.
Addressing a Senate session, Senator Mohsin Naqvi said that some PTI members had direct links with the Taliban. He said the PTI negotiating committee had been informed that members of its party were in contact with the Taliban and that the government had evidence to support this claim.
He said Murad Saeed was making the decisions, not the chief minister, adding that members of the provincial cabinet had said Murad Saeed had put them in danger.
Mohsin Naqvi said that during PTI’s November 25, 2024, sit-in, the government had offered the party a place to hold its protest. PTI members had said they would speak to the party’s founding chairman over the phone and postpone the sit-in. However, when the call was arranged, half of the party refused to agree to the postponement.
The interior minister further said that Barrister Gohar had been offered the opportunity to have a video statement recorded from PTI’s founding chairman, but the chairman did not record the statement.
He said Opposition Leader Senator Raja Nasir Abbas should explain what had been done in violation of the Constitution, adding that both governor’s rule and the imposition of an emergency had been carried out under the Constitution.
Mohsin Naqvi also said that he had called Barrister Gohar and asked him what changes were required in paragraph four. The draft was revised three times, and on the fourth occasion, six changes were proposed.
He said all six proposals were accepted, but the talks still failed to make progress. Once everything had been settled, they sent the draft to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister.
The interior minister revealed that the KP chief minister then forwarded the agreed draft to Murad Saeed. He questioned why Sohail Afridi had not participated in the negotiations if he was the one responsible for making the final decision.
He said the PTI side then made the recording of a video statement by the party’s founding chairman a condition. Barrister Gohar was asked to go and arrange the recording.
Mohsin Naqvi said the party’s founding chairman then insisted that the recording be made using Barrister Gohar’s phone. The government accepted this condition, after which the chairman said the recording should be made from behind bars.
He said that when the government agreed to the recording being made from behind bars, the chairman said he would record it the following day rather than that day.
Addressing Raja Nasir Abbas, Mohsin Naqvi said he should not hold the government responsible and should instead look at the people within his own party who had brought it to its current position.
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