PESHAWAR (The Thursday Times) — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed on Thursday to “leave no stone unturned” in restoring progress to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on his first visit to the province since the Centre imposed governor’s rule there on October 11.
“I promise that we will leave no stone unturned in bringing back the happiness and era of progress to this province, and in the practical realisation of the wishes, aspirations, and dreams of this province’s people that have been shattered due to the worst actions of recent years,” Shehbaz said, chairing a meeting of the provincial apex committee in Peshawar. He said the Centre “will place all possible resources at your feet,” and that the Advisory Council now running the province, along with himself, the president and the army chief, would work to ensure KP “not only matches the other provinces in the race for development” but moves ahead of them.
The meeting was attended by Field Marshal Asim Munir and KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, along with federal ministers and newly appointed provincial advisers, and reviewed the province’s overall security situation.
‘No greater enmity with the country’
Shehbaz said emergency and governor’s rule had been imposed “under extreme compulsion,” and accused the outgoing PTI-led provincial government of letting “terrorists were summoned back here” after peace had been established, “washing down all sacrifices down the drain.”
“There can be no greater enmity with the country than not honouring and respecting such sacrifices, not holding them in esteem,” he said, pointing to soldiers who had left their homes and families to defend the country. He called for an “all-encompassing analysis as to why this happened,” saying there was “no worse callousness, criminal negligence, and hostility towards the national interest than this.”
“All issues of the people were pushed aside — whether it is education, healthcare, or protecting the lives and property of the people — and [having] matters with terrorists instead,” he said. “I believe that no other example can be found of such hostility against the country, in terms of their attitudes, detachment, and callousness.”
Shehbaz said the province had been “shattered with wounds” over the past six years, recalling that security forces had sacrificed to restore peace in KP, with 80,000 people killed and the economy losing several hundred billion dollars before peace was “completely restored” in 2018. Calling the province “very beautiful” and “the first extremely strong wall of the homeland,” he said he hoped the government would “work hard day and night” to speed its development.
From disagreement to governor’s rule
The Centre imposed emergency and governor’s rule in KP on October 11, citing what it called the PTI-led provincial government’s deliberate disengagement from counterterrorism efforts; Parliament endorsed the move the following week over opposition protests, and troops were authorised to be deployed in aid of civil power in the province.
The move followed the collapse of talks between the federal government and PTI about a week earlier, with counterterrorism policy among the main sticking points. PTI said it was being frozen out of security decisions affecting KP, a charge the Centre called “completely wrong”, while federal ministers alleged a “nexus” between the provincial government and terrorist groups and pointed to its stance on talks with the Afghan Taliban as part of the problem.
A day after the order took effect, Kundi and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi chaired an earlier apex committee meeting, at which Kundi pledged to enforce federal policy and work with security forces, saying counterterrorism policy would now “come from Islamabad, not Kabul”.
Updated 4:45pm, October 22, 2026, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks from the apex committee meeting.∎
