Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that repeated actions by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) leadership are harming national unity and inter-provincial harmony.
Responding to a letter written by the KP Chief Minister, the minister wrote on social media platform X that the PTI workers, with the patronage of their leadership, were using extremely abusive language on social media.
“All these actions are damaging constitutional offices and inter-provincial respect,” he said, urging collective condemnation of such conduct. “Let us all come together to condemn this and put an end to it,” the Defence Minister said.
Earlier, Sohail Afridi, in a letter addressed to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday, expressed “deep concern” at the treatment meted out to him during his three-day Lahore visit, stating it was marked by “discourtesy and unnecessary hostility”.
In a two-page letter, posted on X by the KP government, the Afridi recorded his formal objection to the Punjab government’s conduct, and said, “I write to you with deep concern and strong exception to the manner in which my recent visit to the Province of Punjab was handled, and the events that deliberately unfolded during and after the visit.”
He recalled that the “sequence of actions witnessed was neither accidental nor administrative in nature.
“It reflects conduct that is wholly incompatible with the dignity of constitutional office and the spirit of inter-provincial respect,” he said.
CM Afridi told the Punjab CM that he undertook the visit in his capacity as the chief minister.
“Regrettably, the treatment accorded to me was marked by discourtesy, unnecessary hostility, and protocol deviations that cannot be justified under any accepted standard of inter-provincial engagement,” he said.
Afridi maintained that the Punjab government’s adoption of an extraordinary and excessive security posture – including sweeping detentions and visible enforcement theatrics – was “a message of intimidation rather than cooperation”.
He complained that “such measures were neither proportionate nor warranted and conveyed an intent that went well beyond legitimate security considerations”.
The KP chief minister further recalled that “even public places, including food streets and markets, were completely sealed, and whole blackouts were affected, venues denied, paining the common citizens of Lahore at this expense”.
“Free access, as provided for in the Constitution, was even denied at Motorway rest areas,” added the letter.
The KP CM also took note of the “coordinated and malicious social media campaign that accompanied and followed” his visit.
“Serious insinuations- specifically linking with narcotics were injected into public discourse,” Afridi said.
“These allegations were amplified through accounts widely perceived to be aligned with, or operating under the umbrella of, the Government of Punjab,” he alleged.
He continued: “Let me state this clearly: the use of state-linked digital platforms to circulate or amplify defamatory insinuations against a sitting Chief Minister of another province is unacceptable, irresponsible, and institutionally indefensible.”
“Allegations of such gravity cannot be floated through innuendo or suggestion; they require evidence, jurisdiction, and lawful process,” he told the Punjab CM.
“Anything short of that constitutes character assassination,” he added.
KP CM was of the view that, “taken together – protocol degradation, excessive policing optics, and synchronised digital vilification – the pattern is too consistent to be dismissed as coincidental”.
He alleged that the series of events suggested “planning and intent, aimed at humiliation rather than engagement”.
CM Afridi maintained that “such actions undermine federal harmony, erode public trust in provincial institutions, and [set] a dangerous precedent where constitutional officeholders are targeted through insinuation rather than addressed through formal channels.”
He termed the conduct “beneath the status of a provincial government”, and stressed that it damaged the “collective credibility of federating units”.
As he concluded his letter to Maryam, the chief minister stated: “I place on record my strong protest and rejection of the treatment meted out to me and of the defamatory narratives propagated during this episode.”
“I expect that your government will ensure that such conduct – administrative as well as digital – is neither repeated nor normalised, and that accountability is enforced where required,” he said.