MANSEHRA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor Faisal Kareem Kundi on Sunday scolded the KP’s provincial government for deteriorating law and order situation in the province, and said that the government was not fulfilling its responsibilities, enshrined in the Constitution, to bring normalcy in the province.

“We, the federal government, accept a public mandate for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to rule this province, so that’s why the governor rule is not one of the options to bring law and order situation under control here,” the governor said while speaking here at a press conference.

The provincial president of Pakistan People’s Party Mohammad Ali Khan Bacha, general secretary Shujah Salam Khan, divisional president Malik Farooq and district president Malik Mumtaz were also in attendance.

The governor said that since the 18th Amendment was passed in 2011, law and order was the provincial subject, but the KP government had miserably failed to come up with the expectations of the people and hold an in-camera session of the provincial assembly even after the Bannu incident.

Asks for PA’s in-camera session on fragile law, order in province

“The government should hold an in-camera session of the assembly and it’s cabinet to apprise its lawmakers and ministers on the deteriorating law and order situation,” Mr Kundi stressed. He condemned the kidnapping and killing of judges as well as the armed forces personnel in southern districts of the province.

The governor said that Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had served him with a defamation notice of Rs500 million which he didn’t mind as the latter was without any such prestige to move the court of law.

“Mr Gandapur should deal effectively with the law and order situation in the province and curb the ever-increasing corruption in provincial departments,” Governor Kundi said.

He said that Mr Gandapur had fixed rates of postings and transfers in the province, and no official would get posting without giving illegal gratifications.

Referring to a possible alliance of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led federal government, the governor said that it was almost impossible as Maulana Fazlur Rehman was taking revenge on Imran Khan by branding him as a foreign agent.

“Assad Qaisar has been exhausted while visiting Maulana Rehman for making an alliance against the federal government, but chairman of the latter’s party barrister Gohar Ali Khan refuted any such development,” he said.

Meanwhile, speaking at the PPP’s workers convention later in the day, Governor Kundi said that his party was being re-organised in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to grab its lost glory. He said that the KP government was yet to appoint full-time vice-chancellors in 26 of 36 universities in the province. “We have also been taking serious measures for the establishment of Hazara varsity’s campus in Kohistan region,” the governor said.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2024