Joint sitting of Parliament endorses emergency, governor's rule in KP amid opposition outcry

A joint sitting of the Parliament on Thursday gave its approval of the Centre’s imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid a strong protest from the opposition. The joint session of the Parliament had been summoned to discuss separate resolutions on the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in KP, where the opposition’s PTI was in power. The Centre took the measures on Oct 11, citing the provincial government’s “deliberate disengagement” from the fight against terrorism. The move followed weeks of political tensions between the Centre and the PTI — as well as negotiations to bridge their differences — after the latter announced a long march to Islamabad to demand the release of its jailed founder, Imran Khan.

Speaking during Thursday’s joint sitting, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi urged the opposition to stick to facts when recounting the dialogue held with the government, asserting that the Centre had “no option left” but to impose emergency and governor’s rule in KP. Naqvi sought to provide a “clarification” on the allegations levelled by the opposition and maintained that the Centre “tried our best” to take the KP government on board on the issue of counterterrorism. “I will request only that you let facts remain facts. [… ] We had no option left, after which we did this and you will definitely oppose it, but we should consider the facts. ” Naqvi, who was part of the government’s delegation during the Oct 3 talks as the interior minister, said: “We tried until the last minute [… ] It was our effort until the last hour that this (emergency/governor’s rule) is not imposed. ” He said the federal government offered its KP counterpart to declare emergency in “12 districts, on which you said fine, let’s do it”. Naqvi claimed that PTI’s Asad…