Bilawal Says KP Governor's Rule Can End If Opposition Engages With Centre on Anti-Terrorism Plan

KARACHI: PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday that governor's rule and emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could end if the opposition engaged with the federal government on a united counterterrorism plan, throwing the Centre an explicit political off-ramp a week after the takeover of the province, Dawn reported.

Bilawal made the remarks while speaking to the media at the Karsaz Monument in Karachi, where he had gone to mark the 19th anniversary of the 2007 Karsaz bombing that targeted slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto's homecoming procession.

Main News Report

Addressing the PTI-led opposition directly, the PPP chairman said the KP emergency did not have to be permanent:

• "If they really want to fight terrorists, and if they want that emergency and governor's rule in KP to end, they should engage with the federal government and politicians and discuss a united policy regarding the fight against terrorism," he said, according to Dawn.
• "If the opposition is ready to fight terrorism and 'we agree on a plan' to do so, the emergency and governor's rule in KP could end," he added.
• He attacked KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi by name: "If the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister (Sohail Afridi) is a coward, if he is not ready to defend his homeland, if he is not ready to fight those terrorists, then the PPP is ready to fight them."
• "That is why we supported the government's decision to impose governor's rule in KP," he said, stressing the party would "join forces with everyone to fight these terrorists."
• He warned the country had reached a point where "terrorist attacks are taking place from Khyber to Khuzdar."

Background Context

The statement comes a week after the Centre imposed governor's rule and emergency in KP, citing what it described as the provincial government's "deliberate disengagement" from the fight against terrorism. The move followed a mobilisation drive and long march by the PTI, which rules the province and sits in opposition at the Centre, demanding the release of its jailed founder Imran Khan.

The blog has been following the crisis closely. PML-N president Nawaz Sharif publicly backed the emergency earlier this week, saying action against the PTI should have come earlier, while the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council has announced a province-wide lawyers' strike for today, Monday, against the move, and lawyers plan to challenge it in the Peshawar High Court alongside other petitions on October 20.

Reactions and Statements

Bilawal used the Karsaz anniversary to draw a direct line between the past and present. Remarking on the bombing, he said the greatest loss was caused when terrorist incidents were not taken seriously. He said the PPP had "prepared entire society" to fight terrorism by creating an environment for counterterrorism operations in 2008, and later adopted a holistic approach when the National Action Plan was introduced.

He blamed the PTI's time in power for the current wave of militancy. When the Taliban came to power in Kabul in 2021, he said, the then government of Imran Khan "also decided to invite the terrorists who were in Afghanistan to come back and live in our Swat, our Malakand, our former tribal areas," while terrorists jailed in Pakistan were also freed. "Today, Pakistan is suffering the losses from these wrong decisions," he lamented.

He claimed the country had once again reached the point where "some forces want to take down Pakistan's flag in Swat," and said that in KP — the province with the highest number of terrorist incidents — its chief minister had "pledged that he would not face the terrorists."

Responding to a question about a possible "compromise" with the opposition, Bilawal said: "You say 'compromise' like it's a bad word [...] Compromise and politics go hand in hand." He said former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had always strived for compromises, arguing it was the PPP's compromises that led to the end of Gen Pervez Musharraf's dictatorship as well as the passage of the 1973 Constitution and the 18th Amendment.

"We (the PPP) are not in the federal government. Nor do we have a majority in Parliament," he said. "But [we have to see] how we can conduct politics in the space we have."

Why This News Matters

This is the first explicit conditional off-ramp offered by a major political figure in the KP emergency crisis: agree a joint anti-terrorism plan, and the governor's rule and emergency can end. It shifts the debate from pure constitutional confrontation toward a possible negotiated settlement.

The timing matters. Bilawal's offer lands on the very day lawyers are observing a province-wide strike against the emergency, and a day before the Peshawar High Court is due to hear petitions challenging the takeover on October 20. It also follows Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's own defence of the move as a "compelled" last resort after failed talks with the PTI.

The PPP is not formally in the federal government, yet its backing is what politically sustains the KP takeover — so Bilawal's condition carries real weight with the Centre. His call for a new National Action Plan and consensus on fighting terrorism also frames the crisis as a security problem first, rather than purely a federal power grab.

He was blunt about the stakes: Pakistan is facing a "historic economic crisis," he said, adding that "it appears that the situation will worsen" — and that addressing it will require fighting terrorism too.

Future Developments

The immediate question is whether the PTI and the wider opposition respond to Bilawal's offer. Any engagement — or a flat rejection — will shape the mood at the Peshawar High Court hearing on October 20 and the lawyers' meeting of bar presidents on October 24.

Bilawal also invited the opposition to take part in an electoral reforms committee the federal government has decided to set up in the National Assembly — another test of whether both sides are willing to talk. On new provinces, he stressed that no administrative units could be created "without the president's signature," reiterating that the PPP opposed any division of Sindh.

PakInsight Hub will follow up as the KP crisis and the opposition's response develop.

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