Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor Haji Ghulam Ali said on Thursday that it would be his endeavor to hold free and fair elections in the province, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

Addressing a press conference along with caretaker provincial chief minister Muhammad Azam Khan, he said he had, time and again, advised the PTI government not to dissolve the KP Assembly, but in vain.  

The governor said that all political parties should do politics, but there were some issues for the resolution of which all needed to get united. Ghulam Ali said at a time when the entire province was in tears over the Police Lines mosque suicide blast, PTI was demanding the date for elections. 

“It is for everybody to see which party is dividing the nation,” he said. 

Ghulam Ali also disputed former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s claim that there was complete peace in the province when the PTI was in power and no incident of terrorism had taken place during that time. “The fact is that 465 incidents of terrorism took place when there was PTI’s government in KP,” the governor claimed. 

He went on to say it was a pity that not a single leader of the PTI had attended the funeral prayer of any policeman martyred in the mosque blast. “And on the other hand, the party is poisoning the youth against the country’s armed forces,” Ghulam Ali said, and stressed the need for rising above all differences and protecting the state.   

He asserted that the nation needed to get united on the incident of terrorism that took place at a mosque in Peshawar. 

The governor was of the view that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was an independent institution, and could take decisions on its own. “I had only given the suggestion that there should be consultations in the present situation,” he said, adding if the PTI was in a haste it should better should ‘Tiger Force’ volunteers to Waziristan and other tribal areas for election duties. 

The governor said he did not have the stature to call the meeting of all political parties’ heads. 

Ghulam Ali said that Rs471 billion had been given for the maintenance of peace in KP. “CTD’s office in Bannu is housed in a rented building,” he said, adding, “Such a huge sum could have been used to equip all police stations of the province with latest facilities.”

The governor also claimed that the KP Police had not been equipped with latest weapons.  

Speaking on the occasion, Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan said it was the Election Commission of Pakistan’s and the governor’s prerogative to decide the date for elections. 

He further said in his meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he had informed him of the financial issues of the province. “The prime minister assured the resolution of these issues,” the CM added.