Kundi Says PTI Long March Will Not Cross Attock

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi has said participants in the PTI long march will not cross Attock and are expected instead to camp in Swabi. His remarks came as political tensions continued around the protest movement and the failed dialogue between the government and opposition.

Speaking on the programme On My Radar, Kundi said march participants knew what could happen if they tried to step outside the province. He argued that the march would not produce any result and linked the political mobilisation to the wider security and governance situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Kundi said the conditions in the province were such that the former chief minister himself could not move around at night. He criticised the people leading the march, saying they could not stand against terrorists and did not attend the funerals of soldiers.

Responding to a question, the governor said reports suggested that march participants would stay in Peshawar and then move towards Khyber. He maintained that he had expected the negotiations to fail from the beginning, pointing to the internal position of the opposition side during the talks.

According to Kundi, matters had been finalised during the process, but the opposition committee later said the chief minister was not agreeing. He added that during his meeting with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, they discussed the long march, law and order and the state of negotiations.

The remarks came as PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar separately said there were no differences within the party and that members were coming together for the sit-in. Addressing a news conference, he said he was surprised that the party’s lawmakers were going missing despite PTI having a government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Gohar claimed that PTI MNAs and MPAs had been made to go missing and urged those responsible to come to their senses. He thanked Jamaat-e-Islami and Awami National Party for speaking against what he called illegal actions and said he would soon meet ANP leader Aimal Wali Khan.

The PTI chairman also said the party remained open to talks, calling its leaders political people whose doors were open for negotiations. He said the government still had time to arrange a meeting with Imran Khan, after which talks could move forward.

Gohar blamed the deadlock on the government’s attitude, saying the government had not shown flexibility. He also said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi had no role in the collapse of negotiations and repeated that a meeting with Imran Khan could help move the process forward.