Earlier this week, Lt Col Shahzada Gul Faraz Tanoli, martyred in Bannu, was laid to rest in Mansehra with full military honour. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, funerals like this are a reminder that the state still holds ground in districts where militants want panic to feel normal, which is why muted participation by the provincial administration spoke much louder than any clarification on social media.
The unease has deepened after Chief Minister Sohail Afridi’s recent address to the Insaf Federation Students. Declaring that PTI’s principal fight was with the military establishment rather than the sitting government, and calling for mobilisation around the release of former prime minister Imran Khan, he shifted the frame at a sensitive moment. Timing is of the essence here.
This comes despite signs, in recent weeks, of a measured recalibration between Islamabad and Peshawar on law and order and counterterror coordination. It was heartening to see the prime minister leaning toward cooperation, especially since the federation and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have spent the last few years burning political oxygen on mutual suspicion. Turning the temperature up again serves no meaningful purpose.
PTI’s provincial leadership has faced visible internal strain, including debates around the role of Aleema Khan and questions over cohesion after the leadership transition. In such circumstances, sharper rhetoric may consolidate a partisan base and recenter authority inside the party, but it narrows room for institutional cooperation and complicates a security environment that demands steadiness.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continues to bear the brunt of violence. Security data from last year indicated that roughly 71 per cent of terrorism-related fatalities nationwide occurred in the province. Therefore, now is not the time to launch schoolyard fights.
None of this requires silence on policy differences. Civilian oversight, constitutional boundaries, and political competition are integral to the system. They should be argued in parliament and in courts. However, they should not be framed as personalised contests with institutions engaged in counterterror operations.
Legions of soldiers have poured out blood while standing in the line of fire, and their families deserve better than to see leaders at each other’s throats. Pakistan stands at a moment where economic stabilisation, provincial governance, and counterterror policy must move in parallel, for which federal-provincial coordination is an absolute necessity. Wars of words have not advanced PTI’s political position in the past, nor have they strengthened Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s administrative leverage with the centre.
The choice before the provincial leadership is straightforward: lower the temperature and keep channels with the centre open. The country needs its leaders united–not diverging into propaganda or personal vendettas– and steadfast on the hard path of public service. Our martyrs and our citizens demand nothing less. *