Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday said the government was trying to avoid imposing governor’s 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 that there was nothing impeding the imposition og governor’s rule in the province, but the government was trying not to use what he described as the “last option”.
“If there is no other way left, then we can use that option,” he said.Asif also criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), urging it to “play the role of a political party rather than a terrorist organisation”.
“We 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,” he said.
The minister described the Taliban as an “anti-Pakistan power” and said that if the PTI allied with it and attacked the capital, the government had the right and responsibility to protect Islamabad.
He referred to the PTI leadership’s 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.
