Pakistan\u2019s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar has accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government of weak governance, calling the party \u201ca branch of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan\u201d in an allegation that, if true, could deepen concerns over security management and the use of public funds in the province.<\/p>\n
Tarar said at a news conference in Islamabad on Saturday, 18 October, that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had received 700 billion rupees through Pakistan\u2019s National Finance Commission for development projects, but had not strengthened the counter-terrorism department and had made no progress in the technical and monitoring sectors.<\/p>\n
According to him, forensic laboratories had not been established during this period and \u201cSafe City\u201d surveillance cameras had not been installed in the merged districts or at the entrances and exits of the province\u2019s districts. He claimed that instead of being spent on security and public services, these funds were being used to stage protests.<\/p>\n
The Pakistani information minister said in part of his remarks: \u201cYou do not even spend half an hour discussing terrorism in the province, but you set aside time for six-hour meetings aimed at chaos and destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also accused PTI of keeping the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a difficult situation in order to secure the release of Imran Khan, the party\u2019s leader and former prime minister of Pakistan, who is in prison. Tarar claimed that people in the province were facing poverty, a shortage of health services, educational deprivation and a lack of infrastructure development, and were, in his words, \u201cin captivity of terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tarar added: \u201cFrom day one, my view has been that they [PTI] are a branch of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.\u201d He also accused the party of facilitating the return of people affiliated with armed groups and asked how long security forces would have to clear areas when, he claimed, such individuals were brought back to the region.<\/p>\n
The Pakistani information minister said the PTI-led provincial government had brought Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the \u201cStone Age\u201d over the past 13 years and had put personal interests ahead of national interests. He stressed that the province \u201cneeds peace, not politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
The allegations come as Pakistan\u2019s ruling parties have repeatedly accused Imran Khan and PTI in recent years of showing leniency toward the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. One of the main points of disagreement has been talks with the group and the issue of the return and resettlement of some of its fighters in Pakistan\u2019s tribal districts.<\/p>\n
Imran Khan said during his premiership that he had spoken about efforts to bring Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fighters and their families back to the tribal areas, but PTI figures have claimed that this process was not solely the initiative of the party and that Pakistani military officials were also involved.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, PTI has accused the ruling parties of policies that have strained Pakistan\u2019s relations with the Taliban administration in Afghanistan. The party has backed negotiations to resolve disputes, but Pakistan\u2019s central government has opposed some independent attempts by provincial governments to negotiate, saying such efforts fall outside the provinces\u2019 authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan’s information minister accuses PTI of ties to TTP and criticises Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s governance and security spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}