PTI march leaves Karak for Kohat as Raja says talks need Imran

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi resumed the PTI’s long march on Monday, addressing supporters in Karak before his convoy set off for Kohat, while the party’s secretary general said no progress was possible in talks without access to jailed founder Imran Khan.

At Karak’s Jail Chowk, Afridi again attacked the Centre’s counterterrorism policy and criticised past military operations and drone attacks, Dawn reported.

Afridi hits back at Naqvi

Afridi responded to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who had called him “immature”. Referring to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s remarks about the terrorism threat to her province, he asked: “Suppose, I say that [my province] does not have a threat from India, but from the other three provinces, will you consider me mature?”

The route ahead

• Monday: people from Karak join; the convoy stays overnight in Kohat
• Tuesday, October 6: departure towards Peshawar at noon, with an overnight stop near Mattani
• October 8: supporters from across KP gather at Khairabad, where the next phase is to be announced

The departure from Karak, set for 12:30pm, was delayed.

Gandapur turns back, arrests in Sindh

Former KP chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who was leading PTI workers from DI Khan to Lakki Marwat, turned back from Yarik because of road blockades and the law and order situation. He said workers had been told not to damage public property, and that the move was temporary, not a withdrawal. Section 144 restrictions have been imposed in DI Khan, South Waziristan, Tank and Hangu.

In Karachi, police blocked roads and detained party workers, disrupting a planned protest. The PTI said more than 75 leaders and workers, including women, were held in Karachi, and more than 100 across Sindh, including in Sukkur.

“How could the negotiations have succeeded?”

At a press conference in Islamabad, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said the talks with the government failed over two main demands, The Express Tribune reported.

“We have two major demands. One is that we should be allowed to meet the PTI founder,” he said, adding that the party would make no decision without Imran. The government also did not agree to include Imran’s personal physician, Dr Faisal Sultan, on his medical panel.

“These were important issues. How could the negotiations have succeeded without them?” Raja said.

He said the PTI also wanted decisions on counterterrorism in KP made through consultation, as agreed at a peace jirga of political parties and tribal elders. “Decisions cannot be made from a distance,” he said, adding that the party stood by Afridi and had not closed the door to talks.

“I said that my daughters and I would come out, carrying flowers in our hands, not Kalashnikovs, we are not armed people,” Raja said.

The government’s account

Naqvi has said the KP government backed away from commitments on counterterrorism, operations in the merged districts and the National Action Plan. PPP leader Sherry Rehman, part of the government team, said the talks collapsed after the KP government refused to sign a draft already agreed by the negotiators.

Why it matters

With the march heading for Peshawar, arrests spreading to Sindh and both sides blaming each other, the space for compromise is shrinking. Whether talks resume before the convoy reaches Khairabad will shape the coming week. Read our reports on Muqam’s comments on governor’s rule and on the PSX slide over political tensions.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn and The Express Tribune.