Pak PM addresses Apex committee meet on national action plan

Amid a state of emergency and governor's rule in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Shahbaz Sharif government is scrambling to put things back in order. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif chaired a meeting of the apex committee on the National Action Plan in Peshawar today. This is where he defended imposing emergency rule in the province due to a deteriorating security situation. Addressing the apex committee meeting, Shahbaz Sharif said his government had been forced to take some difficult decisions after developments over the last several years worsened and this is the developments that worsened the law and order situation in the province. Shehbaz Sharif also took an aim at Imran Khan's PTI, accusing it of bringing back terrorism to the province. He also vowed to eliminate terrorism and restore peace and development in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the PTI has demanded that the Shehbaz Sharif government takes concrete action to rebuild trust instead of making statements about dialogue the party has listed its demands which include the reversal of emergency measures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa release of political prisoners and access to personal physicians for jailed PTI leader and former prime minister Imran Khan the PTI has also challenged the Sharif government to fight an election against PTI saying it would easily emerge victorious if free and fair elections are are conducted. On October 11, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari had proclaimed an emergency under Article 232 and imposed governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the federal government accusing the PTI-led provincial administration of failing to effectively tackle rising militancy. It also formed an 11-member technocratic advisory council and removed the province's chief minister, Sohail Afridi, bringing to an end the only PTI government in Pakistan. Well, widespread and violent clashes had erupted immediately across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the declaration of emergency. Thousands of PTI workers took to the streets to protest the suspension of the democratically elected provincial government. The protests had rapidly escalated into direct confrontations with security forces. According to the emergency proclamation, the provincial government had failed to demonstrate the ownership, will and the intent to adequately deal with the menace of terrorism. It pointed to rising police deaths, staff and equipment shortages in the provincial counter-terrorism department and spending priorities. According to a government white paper, 122 police personnel were killed in the province in the first half of this year, up from 63 during the same period in 2025. Independent trackers also point to rising violence. The Center for Research and Security Studies, CRSS, an Islamabad-based think tank, recorded 556 violence-linked deaths in KP between July and September, up from 475 in the previous quarter and 311 in the one before. All right. Joining us to discuss this further is Adil Farooq Raja, journalist and former military officer of the Pakistan Army. He's joining us live from London. Mr. Raja, always a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us here on Race to Power. Let me start with your assessment of how big this political crisis can get for the Pakistani government. Well, thank you, Shivang, for having me. I was listening to Eric earlier in the premise. The real crisis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is not simply terrorism. It is about political legitimacy, provincial autonomy and control over natural resources, mind you. you know let's establish three fundamental facts first democratic legitimacy now it's irony that mr shabazz sharif and his federal government you know who which faces itself faces serious questions over electoral legitimacy an electoral mandate is lecturing a kp government which has been removed you know and yet kp where imran khan enjoyed the pti imran khan's party pti enjoyed an overwhelming mandate, has seen its elected government removed under emergency powers by a federal government supported by the military establishment of Pakistan, which is actually ruling the country from behind the shadows. Second, the real bone of contention here is, in my opinion, the mines and mineral bill. You know, KP sits on enormous mineral wealth. The controversy is about who controls these resources. the people of KP through their elected representative or powerful federal and military-backed institutions operating through the mechanisms such as SIFC, that is the military doing businesses and controlling businesses in Pakistan. I believe this dispute is central to this confrontation and its role in the removal of provincial government, and it deserves a serious investigation. And then the third, the security establishment's accountability. You know, Pakistan's military has dominated the security policy for decades. Now, yet terrorism continues to thrive and continues to devastate KP. So why should removing an elected government suddenly solve the problem? And finally, the warning of 1971, Pakistan's central establishment, Punjab-centric military establishment led Punjabi establishment once disregarded an overwhelming electoral mandate in East Pakistan. The consequences were catastrophic. Now today's circumstances are different, fine. But the lesson remains, political grievances cannot be resolved through military coercion. And my question to Mr. Shabazz Sharif and the actual ruler of the country, Field Marshal Asim Munir is simple. Are you in Peshawar to restore security and democratic governance or to consolidate central control over politically defined resource rich province just like Balochistan you know because you cannot fight terrorism effectively without alienating the very people whose cooperation you need and pakistan cannot afford to ignore the lessons of 1971 mr raja let me ask you this then because shabba Sharif is trying to restore order in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa He made the statement in Peshawar, like you mentioned. I just want to know from you, how can order be restored in this province, volatile province to be exact, and is removing the emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the only solution for the province moving forward? Very quickly. Eric, Shabazz Sharif is trying to restore which order the orders by the pakistan's military establishment is he restoring that order or you're talking about law and order and if you're talking about law and order it cannot be restored by removing the publicly you know elected a government which has been elected by the public the only government which has got an undisputed mandate in the country was in Imran Khan's PTI's government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has been forcibly removed by an allegedly illegitimate regime whose central mandate is disputed in the 2024 elections. So obviously, anyone who actually knows Pakistan knows that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has been removed because they were not taking the dictations of the military establishment in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and signing away their mineral resources to the military-led business empire. That is the main, you know, bone of contention over here. And now restoring order, you say, well, which order is being restored? Let me ask you. I mean, there was a public protest, democratic protest, peaceful protest going on in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan and for the freedom of Imran Khan. but because of that public protest they gave a pretext that and they gave an explanation that because of terrorism they are removing the KPK government but there was no terrorism you know there was no terrorism in the protest which was going on because of which the KPK government was removed it was a peaceful democratic protest the terrorism only erupted and increased after the government was removed and governor rule was imposed and i've already given you my reasons why you know it is a resource curse of KPK just like Balochistan and the central establishment want to exploit the resources of that province and that is what we are looking at Mr Farooq Raja will have to leave it there and see how this situation unfolds but for now thank you for talking to us today thank you Eric