Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has defended Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s recent remarks on terrorism, saying the chief minister was referring to the movement of militants across provincial boundaries rather than targeting any ethnic community.
The controversy began after Ms Nawaz, while discussing security concerns last week, said that Punjab faced a greater threat from neighbouring provinces than from neighbouring countries.
Her comments drew criticism from political leaders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where successive governments and residents have long maintained that the province has borne a significant share of the impact of Pakistan’s prolonged fight against militancy.
Responding to the criticism in a video statement, Ms Bokhari said Ms Nawaz had been referring to militants who move between provinces and eventually enter Punjab.
“Maryam Nawaz was referring to terrorists who do not remain confined to one province and eventually move towards Punjab. What exactly is objectionable about that?” she said.
Ms Bokhari said militant groups operating in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including groups she alleged were backed by India, posed a security threat to the entire country.
She said the Punjab government had restructured its Counter-Terrorism Department and dismantled militant sleeper cells in the province. She also referred to attacks on police checkpoints in Punjab, saying several police personnel had been killed while combating militancy.
The minister said Pakistan’s armed forces were capable of dealing with external threats and alleged that India was pursuing its objectives through proxies rather than direct confrontation.
Ms Bokhari also criticised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, saying maintaining law and order was primarily the responsibility of provincial authorities.
“You cannot simply hand over a province to the army and the police and then abdicate your own responsibility,” she said.
She questioned the demand by the KP chief minister for an apology from Ms Nawaz, arguing that the provincial government should instead focus on tackling the militant threat.
Ms Bokhari called for militant sleeper cells in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to be eliminated, as she said had been done in Punjab, and accused the province’s leadership of prioritising political confrontation over security concerns.
Ms Nawaz’s remarks have added to tensions between the Punjab government and the PTI-backed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration, amid an increasingly contentious political dispute between the two provinces.
