Bilawal offers to ask PM to end KP emergency if PTI returns to talks, as NA weighs endorsement resolution

Key takeaways

• PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari told the National Assembly on Wednesday (14 October) that he would personally ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to end the emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) if PTI comes back to political talks.
• In the same speech he supported the emergency, called it a temporary measure, and said PTI's provincial leadership had helped create the situation — describing it as a "political suicide attack" on its own government.
• A government resolution seeking the National Assembly's endorsement of the emergency was tabled the same day. The final vote outcome was not yet reported when this post was published.
• PM Shehbaz Sharif told coalition lawmakers on Tuesday that the step was taken under Articles 232 and 234 after talks with the provincial leadership failed.
• PTI and the joint opposition reject the emergency and call it politically motivated.

What Bilawal said

Speaking in the National Assembly, Bilawal invited PTI to hold talks with the government and other parties and to "create conditions" in which the emergency would no longer be needed. If that happened, he said, he would stand in the House and ask the prime minister to lift it.

He said the PPP had first urged the government to engage the opposition before using what he called a "constitutional atom bomb". According to his account, PPP members sat on the committee negotiating with the opposition, and at one point he was told the two sides were close to agreeing on joint counter-terrorism steps for KP — including declaring the worst-hit areas as terrorism-affected and drafting an agreement between the federal government, the province and the chief minister.

Bilawal said those talks did not succeed and argued that PTI's provincial leaders gave neither the president nor the PPP any constitutional, legal or political grounds to refuse the summary. He also criticised the chief minister for, in his words, asking supporters not to cooperate with federal counter-terrorism efforts.

He added that shrinking political space hurts all parties and ordinary citizens, and welcomed a proposed parliamentary committee on electoral reforms — while saying it would mean little without the opposition.

What the government says

• PM Shehbaz Sharif (Tuesday, to PML-N and allied lawmakers): the government repeatedly offered talks and cooperation but did not get a positive response. He said the federal government had given KP more than Rs800 billion, but the province had not adequately strengthened its Counter Terrorism Department or built Safe City projects. A technocratic advisory council has been set up to assist the governor, he said.
• Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar (in the NA): the emergency was imposed under the Constitution because of internal unrest and cross-border infiltration. He said some demands raised during negotiations — including about the jailed PTI founder — were outside the executive's powers.

What the opposition says

PTI and its allies say the emergency was "pre-planned" and want it withdrawn immediately. They argue an elected provincial government has been sidelined. These are the opposition's claims; the government denies the move was political.

Background

The emergency and governor's rule in KP were proclaimed on Sunday, 11 October. Since then the Army has been deployed in parts of the province, and the issue has dominated Parliament this week. TalkEmber has covered the earlier steps in separate reports.

What to watch

• Whether the National Assembly passes the resolution endorsing the emergency, and the vote count.
• Any response from PTI to Bilawal's offer of talks.
• The Peshawar High Court petition filed by PTI against the emergency.

This is a developing story and will be updated.