Constitution allows ban on PTI but we do not want it, says Talal Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry has said that the Constitution has ample room for a ban on PTI, but that, as a political government, they do not want to take such a step.

In a statement, he said the government did not want to impose governor’s rule either. He said that in the past 14 years PTI had never treated Terrorism as a problem. He added that if the whole government were ever handed over to Adiala, Bani Gala or Murad Saeed, the results would be the same.

According to a Sooch Fact Check report, on 11 October 2026 the federal government imposed emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This followed President Asif Ali Zardari’s approval of a summary under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution. Article 232 deals with the declaration of emergency in a province, while Article 234 deals with the imposition of governor’s rule when the constitutional machinery in a province fails.

The report said President Zardari met Prime Minister Shehbaz Shareef on 10 October and discussed the possibility of an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Earlier, on 3 October, talks between the PML-N-led federal government and the PTI provincial government had reached a deadlock. The talks were to cover PTI’s long march towards Islamabad and the counter-terrorism policy in the province.

After the talks, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Allama Raja Nasir Abbas said a deadlock had arisen over a meeting with Imran Khan and the matter of ending Terrorism in the province. PTI interim chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said the long march would go ahead and that emergency or governor’s rule was not the solution to Terrorism. According to the party, the main point of the deadlock was the demand for immediate access to Imran Khan. The government agreed to restore meetings with his family, but refused further steps concerning his Health and medical examination.

Talal Chaudhry blamed the provincial government for the failure of the talks. He said it could not assure the government that it would cooperate in the war against Terrorism in future.

According to Sooch Fact Check, a video that went viral on Social Media as the siege of the Governor House Khyber Pakhtunkhwa actually shows the burning of the Nepali prime minister’s residence in September 2025.