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Pakistan opposition alliance goes to court over KP emergency as Achakzai alleges Imran deal push
Mahmood Khan Achakzai and other TTAP leaders asked the Peshawar High Court to strike down governor's rule. He claimed Imran Khan was being forced into a deal like those once made with Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
Key points
- TTAP leaders filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court against the 11 October emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
- Achakzai claimed Imran Khan was being pushed into a Benazir and Nawaz-style deal.
- The court will take up the PTI's own challenge on 20 October.
Pakistan’s opposition alliance TTAP has asked the Peshawar High Court to throw out the emergency and governor’s rule imposed on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and its leader has accused the authorities of trying to force Imran Khan into an exile deal.
The petition, filed on Friday, challenges the emergency proclamation of 11 October, under which Chief Minister Sohail Afridi’s government was set aside. It was moved by Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the alliance chief and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, along with Senate opposition leader Raja Nasir Abbas, Sardar Akhtar Mengal of the BNP-Mengal and Syed Zainul Abideen.
Speaking to reporters at the court, Achakzai claimed the jailed PTI founder was being pushed into an arrangement like those that saw Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto leave for self-imposed exile after they were ousted. “The same is happening today with the PML-N and PPP in government,” he said. He added: “Nowhere in the world is a prisoner denied meetings.”
He called for the withdrawal of what he called the “wrong amendment” and for an independent commission to ensure fair elections. “We stand with the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said. Raja Nasir Abbas said: “You cannot run a country, yet you have occupied a province.”
The high court has fixed 20 October for a preliminary hearing of a separate petition by PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan. The bench has not yet been named.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi hit back in Lahore on Friday, in remarks that appeared aimed at the JUI-F chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman. “The head of a party is extremely upset over being denied a role in the new setup in KP and not getting the governorship,” Naqvi said, adding that the politician had been “dependent on the establishment for decades”.