PTI’s Sohail Afridi and three other opposition candidates on Sunday filed their nomination papers to contest the prime ministerial elections scheduled for tomorrow during a session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, according to the assembly secretary.
Afridi, a member of the provincial assembly from Bara, was nominated for the post by party founder Imran Khan after outgoing KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced his resignation earlier this week. This has sparked an election to decide the next CEO of KP.
Secretary Syed Muhammad Mahir told reporters that Afridi’s documents, as well as those of the three opposition candidates, contesting on behalf of the PPP, PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), have been received and approved.
“The nomination papers of PTI’s Sohail Afridi have been approved,” he said. “The papers of Arbab Zarq of People’s Party, Sardar Jahan of PML-N and Maulana Lutfur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F have also been approved for the post of Chief Minister.”
A video shared by PTI on X showed Afridi signing documents, with the caption saying that he had submitted his documents to contest the CM elections.
When asked by a dawn.com correspondent on allegations by federal ministers that he was in touch with banned organisations, Afridi said dawn.com that the Center has “declared that we are all banned groups, we are all terrorists and they have filed all FIRs (first information reports) against us.”
PTI holds meetings
PTI KP Chairman and MNA Junaid Akbar earlier posted on X that a consultative session was held today in the provincial assembly speaker’s chamber, ahead of the scheduled CM elections.
Afridi was among those attending the meeting, during which election stages, preparations for Monday’s assembly session and the issue of contacting other assembly members were discussed, Akbar said.
In a separate post, he said nine PTI-supporting AMPs who were abroad had returned to Pakistan. “Our 92 MPAs are in Pakistan and in touch with us,” Akbar said, adding that Afridi would win the election with a two-thirds majority.
Earlier, a delegation of candidates visited the Awami National Party (ANP) at its Bacha Khan Markaz headquarters in Peshawar.
The delegation was led by PTI Provincial Chairman Junaid Akbar Khan and included Sher Ali Arbab, Ali Khan Jadoon, Shaukat Yousafzai, Malik Adeel Iqbal, Irfan Saleem and other leaders, according to PTI Under Secretary Information and Social Media Head Ikram Katahna, who was also part of the delegation.
“Tomorrow a democratic process will take place, for which we will contact democratic people,” Junaid said. “PTI has a numerical majority in KP. We want to elect Sohail Afridi unopposed to stop anti-democratic figures.”
ANP KP president Mian Iftikhar Hussain responded that the party “would not be part of any unconstitutional and undemocratic process” and would speak to its leaders after consultations.
The PTI delegation also met Federal Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs Amir Muqam today and Junaid stated that the delegation had come with the hope of taking a joint decision “like in the past”, according to Katahna.
“We have to unite to solve the problems that the country is going through,” Junaid said. “The PTI has a clear majority in the assembly and the KP cannot afford any more problems or political instability at this time. We want to elect Sohail Afridi without opposition.”
Muqam responded that he would consult federal leaders “according to the traditions of the province” and report back to the delegation after their talks.
Gandapur resigns
Outgoing CM Gandapur resigned from his post over party founder Imran’s concerns over a rise in terrorism in the province.
PTI general secretary Salman Akram Raja on Wednesday confirmed Gandapur’s resignation during a press conference, stating that the decision was taken by Imran, who, he said, briefed him about the “background of this in detail and also directed me to present it to him”.
He noted that the PTI had a “clear majority” in the KP Assembly through which Afridi would be elected the next chief minister.
Raja also quoted Imran expressing concern over the rise of terrorism in PTI-ruled KP.
He said: “There is the worst terrorism situation in KP. There have been record incidents this year. […] Of the lives lost and martyrdoms so far, no example of this has been found.”
“Khan sahib is very sad, the incident that happened in Orakzai, Khan sahib said that now he has no choice but to make the change. [in KP CM].”
However, Gandapur’s resignation letter, which was shared with the media, apparently got lost in the bureaucracy, and the Governor’s house initially denied receiving it.
Officials at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat said Sunrise that the letter had been delivered to the Governor’s House on Wednesday night. A copy of the letter seen by Sunrise It showed that he was received by the governor’s staff at 10:57 p.m.
However, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, who was in Islamabad on Thursday, and other officials of the Governor’s Secretariat remained tight-lipped on the issue.
An official on Kundi’s staff had told him Sunrise who had not yet received the letter of resignation. “As far as I know, the resignation has not yet reached the Governor’s Office,” the official said, adding that the governor would sign it whenever he received it.
Later, Gandapur sent another handwritten resignation letter to the governor and Kundi confirmed receipt of the letter in a postal mail on X on Saturday.
“Today at 2:30 pm, the Governor’s House duly received and acknowledged the handwritten resignation notice of CM Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he wrote. “After thorough scrutiny and legal formalities according to the constitution [and] relevant laws, the subject’s resignation will be processed in due time,” he added.
Meanwhile, Salman Akram Raja held a press conference explaining that as per Article 130(8) (the Prime Minister may, by written address to the President, resign from office) of the Constitution, a Prime Minister can resign from office and it does not require the acceptance or approval of the Governor.
He also said that Afridi “will be the first CM to come from the tribal areas” and said, “This province will progress a lot under his leadership. We hope that the bloodshed will be put to an end through diplomacy, so that we can eradicate terrorism in the region.”
