LAHORE: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday blamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi for the collapse of government-Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) talks, claiming that both sides had reached a “win-win” agreement before the chief minister sought changes to the finalised draft.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore following the deadlock in negotiations, Naqvi said the draft agreement had been finalised after several rounds of discussions and only required Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari to go through it.
He said he had briefed both the prime minister and the president on the negotiations.
According to Naqvi, when he returned to the Parliament House from consultations with the PM and the president, he was told that Afridi had raised objections and sought changes to the draft, despite the negotiating teams having already finalised it.
“The draft was changed four times and then it was finalised,” he said, adding that the government side had told the opposition that if the KP chief minister had reservations, he should either be brought into the meeting or send a representative.
Naqvi claimed that PTI and opposition leaders, including Senator Raja Nasir Abbas, were subsequently put under pressure by Afridi over the proposed agreement.
He said Asad Qaiser had initially indicated that the KP government was supporting the federal government’s position in the negotiations.
The government then sent the PTI negotiating team to Peshawar to meet Afridi and resolve the differences, but the delegation returned without success, according to Naqvi.
The interior minister said the federal government’s primary concern was counterterrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly in the merged districts.
His remarks came after Naqvi had earlier said the KP government initially agreed to sign a written agreement and submit an implementation plan within 72 hours covering a range of security-related measures.
These included preventing terrorists from operating freely or finding safe havens in the province, condemning the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups, supporting the federal government’s Afghan refugee policy, increasing funding for counterterrorism operations and police, and strengthening cooperation between the provincial government and armed forces.
The proposed commitments also covered implementation of the National Action Plan, counterterrorism decisions in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas and merged districts, and greater provincial ownership of counterterrorism measures.
Naqvi said the KP government subsequently backed away from those commitments during the final phase of negotiations.
The claims come amid competing accounts of why the talks failed. PTI negotiator Salman Akram Raja has said the federal government wanted the KP government to support federal actions and operations against terrorism in the province, including an emergency in the merged districts and adjoining areas within 72 hours.
Raja said the PTI team wanted counterterrorism policy in KP to be based on agreement between the federal and provincial governments and consultation with political parties represented in the provincial assembly.
The talks, aimed at averting the PTI’s October 4 march on Islamabad, continued until around 2:30am on Sunday but ended without an agreement.
Naqvi also clarified that the government had not initially demanded that the PTI call off its long march as a condition for the negotiations.
He said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) later asked the PTI to call off the march as part of efforts to de-escalate the political confrontation.
The PTI has since announced that it will proceed with the march towards Islamabad, while the government has said it will not allow the protest to enter the capital.
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