\u2018Enough is enough\u2019
\nAchakzai \u201cguarantees\u201d negotiation process to continue after meeting PTI founder
\nislamabad
\nDefence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday said the government was trying to avoid imposing governor\u2019s rule in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, but warned that it could resort to the option if no other way was left.
\nSpeaking to reporters in Islamabad, the minister said that there was nothing impeding the imposition og governor\u2019s rule in the province, but the government was trying not to use what he described as the \u201clast option\u201d.
\n\u201cIf there is no other way left, then we can use that option,\u201d he said.
\nAsif also criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), urging it to \u201cplay the role of a political party rather than a terrorist organisation\u201d.
\n\u201cWe cannot leave the capital at their mercy so that every two or three months they join hands with the Taliban and march on the capital,\u201d he said.
\nThe minister described the Taliban as an \u201canti-Pakistan power\u201d and said that if the PTI allied with it and attacked the capital, the government had the right and responsibility to protect Islamabad.
\nHe referred to the PTI leadership\u2019s alleged failure to attend the funerals of people killed in Taliban attacks and its failure to condemn explosions, claiming that these factors indicated, in his view, that the Taliban had a militant component within the K-P government.
\nAsif also described the PTI\u2019s planned long march as an \u201cattack on Islamabad\u201d, saying previous attacks on the capital had also been motivated by political parties\u2019 efforts to establish their credibility within their own ranks.
\nHe attributed the failure of talks between the government and opposition to internal differences within the PTI.
\n\u201cDifferences within the PTI have intensified,\u201d he said, adding that members of the PTI sitting in the National Assembly, its negotiating team and even its allies wanted a solution to the issue that was acceptable to the entire country.
\nAsked about the PTI\u2019s demand for a meeting with Imran Khan before deciding whether to postpone its long march, Asif said he did not know about it.
\nHe instead urged the PTI to look at its record. \u201cLook at your past. When we were imprisoned, what facilities did you provide us? Did you keep us at the Marriott?\u201d he said.
\nAsif reiterated that the PTI should act as a political party rather than a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Enough is enough\u2019 Achakzai \u201cguarantees\u201d negotiation process to continue after meeting PTI founder islamabad Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday said the government was trying to avoid imposing governor\u2019s rule in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, but warned that it could resort to the option if no other way was left. Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, the minister said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":104101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104105,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104093\/revisions\/104105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}