ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday strongly criticised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), blaming the party’s leadership for the political and constitutional crisis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) that led to the imposition of an emergency.
Addressing the National Assembly during a discussion on the emergency and Governor’s Rule in the province, Bilawal said the federal government had made every possible effort to engage the opposition in political dialogue and avoid taking the extraordinary step.
“Imposing an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the last resort,” he said, referring to Article 232 of the Constitution.
Bilawal said the Constitution empowered the president to proclaim an emergency under extraordinary circumstances, adding that the government had made extensive efforts to find a political and constitutional solution to the situation in the province.
He said the federal government had held lengthy negotiations with the opposition before resorting to what he described as the “political atom bomb” of emergency rule.
Bilawal said the federal government had raised concerns that the KP government was not extending adequate cooperation in the fight against terrorism. He added that the security situation in the province was such that the provincial government could not tackle terrorism on its own.
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Blaming PTI for the crisis, Bilawal said the party’s provincial leadership was responsible for the circumstances that had led to the emergency.
“The opposition’s responsible leadership knows that the PTI carried out a political suicide attack on its own KP government,” he said.
He further argued that PTI was now blaming the federal government and the president for the situation, despite the role played by its own leadership in creating the political and constitutional crisis.
Bilawal said the developments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were largely the result of PTI’s own mistakes and policies, adding that the party could not shift responsibility for the situation onto others.
He also said the federal government had not wanted to take such a stringent political and constitutional measure.
Earlier, Senator Faisal Vawda on Tuesday claimed that PTI had fallen apart and that its political show was over, urging the party’s leaders to form a new political party or join another political platform to serve the country.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Vawda criticised the PTI-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and discussed recent political developments surrounding the province, including the imposition of an emergency and Governor’s Rule.