Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said on Sunday that Sohail Afridi and Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati were “in safe hands” after being placed under house arrest.
Afridi, who has become non-functional as the KP chief minister, has not been seen since the Centre imposed governor’s rule and emergency in his province on Oct 11. After their whereabouts remained unknown that day, a federal minister confirmed the next day that he and some of his cabinet members were in preventative custody.
However, with no further details officially confirmed, Afridi’s brother and Swati’s cousin have approached the Peshawar High Court separately to seek their relative’s recovery.
Appearing on Geo News’ TV programme ‘Jirga’ aired on Sunday night, the governor — who now runs the province — was asked about the whereabouts of Afridi, Kundi said he had been placed under house arrest and was “in safe hands — there is no need to worry”.
He said that if there were cases against Afridi, action would be taken against him and he would be indicted. However, if there were no cases, he would be released.
Asked why Afridi was not being released if there were no cases against him, Kundi replied he could provide an update tomorrow regarding the matter.
The governor further said that Speaker Swati was also under house arrest and would also be freed if there were no charges against him. Responding to another question, Kundi accused the PTI member of committing “illegal and unconstitutional” acts in his role as the KP Assembly Speaker.
Asked how many people were self-arrested and how many were “genuinely” arrested, Kundi said he did not have these numbers but that about 40 or 50 per cent of them were “under self-imposed arrest or self-concealment”.
The governor also addressed the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in KP, stressing that it had been the “absolute last option”.
Regarding the potential duration of the emergency, he said, “We will see … after six months are complete, we will talk about what will and will not happen.
“But in my opinion, maybe it will run longer,” he added, clarifying that this was a “personal opinion” and he could be wrong.
He said that the basis for saying this was that the Centre and province needed to be “on the same page” in the fight against terrorism and “streamline” efforts against it, and was making plans accordingly, which he believed would take some time.
Kundi also distanced himself and the state policy from purported remarks made by Malik Khan Marjan — a member of the newly formed Area Representative and Development Council (ARDC) for 12 districts of KP — wherein he favoured dialogue with the Afghan Taliban.
“I will definitely check on this, but our policy is very clear: for now, we will not be holding talks with Afghanistan,” he maintained.
The governor condemned acts of terrorism carried out against Pakistan from Afghan soil and criticised Kabul for “allowing” India to use its soil against Pakistan while also asking for dialogue.
“If there is terrorism from there … our army knows how to fix it,” he added. “There is no dialogue and no talks of any kind about this.”
“I think this is his (Marjan’s) personal opinion, but it is not our policy,” Kundi said.