Tariq Saeed Peshawar
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf nominated Chief Minister for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur who is all set to take oath of his office on February 28 when the KP assembly meets in its inaugural session, has short listed his cabinet members yet the final nod in this regard will be given by the PTI supremo Imran Khan.
Governor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Haji Ghulam Ali, it may be recalled, had on Sunday summoned the Provincial Assembly to meet on Wednesday, the 28th February, 2024 11:00 a.m. in the Assembly building of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for taking Oath of its Members, election and Oath of Speaker and Deputy Speaker and for the election of Chief Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
However, PTI senior leader and Chief minister-in-waiting Gandapur has decided against joining the Sunni Ittehad Council, as he will be vying for the top provincial post in an independent capacity with PTI members included in the SIC to vote for him as he is also aspiring to contest for the post of PTI’s Provincial President of PTI during its intra-party elections on March 3 and has submitted his nomination papers with his party.
The PTI backed 90 MPAs of the KP assembly had under an agreement joined the Sunny Ittehad Council as they were forced to contest polls in the independent capacity following the former Prime Minister Imran Khan founded party was deprived of its iconic symbol Bat in the February 8 general elections.
With an impressive count of 90 independents joining forces with the party, it now stands as the leading force in the KP assembly and is likely to secure 21 seats out of 26 reserved for the women besides claiming all the four seats reserved for the minorities provided the Election Commission of Pakistan allows the process go on smoothly.
The opposition parties have also decided not to leave the field open to the PTI and announced to put up candidates for the chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker slots. They would come up with unanimous aspirants for the three offices and an announcement to this effect is expected to be made after a meeting of the opposition parties.
However, their one time close ally Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F is yet to make up its mind to support the opposition in the KP assembly as the party’s Supremo and president of the former Pakistan Democratic Movement Maulana Fazlur Rehman has out rightly rejected the February 8 polls result which he said was subjected to large scale rigging and that the mandate of the masses was stolen. The JUI sources said neither Pakistan Muslim League-N nor Pakistan People’s Party had contacted JUI leadership so far over the election of the chief minister, speaker, and deputy speaker of the KP Assembly.
