By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: A political crisis deepened in the volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday as the newly elected chief minister, Sohail Afridi, awaited his swearing-in amid a boycott by opposition parties and a governor’s rejection of his predecessor’s resignation over disputed signatures.
Afridi, a rising figure in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, won 90 votes in the provincial assembly to succeed Ali Amin Gandapur, who resigned last week at the direction of PTI’s jailed founder, Imran Khan. Opposition lawmakers walked out, leaving rival candidates — Maulana Lutfur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Arbab Zarak Khan of the Pakistan People’s Party — with zero votes.
The transition hit a snag when Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi refused Gandapur’s resignation, questioning the signature’s validity, a charge Gandapur denied, affirming its authenticity. This has clouded Afridi’s path to office, leading PTI to seek intervention from the Peshawar High Court. PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, flanked by party leaders, filed a petition at the court, urging no delay past Tuesday in the oath ceremony.
Addressing reporters outside, Raja said, “It is necessary to administer the oath to the KP CM-elect. Taking the oath cannot be delayed.” He faulted Kundi for not being present to conduct the rite, adding: “Under the constitution, the chief justice can nominate anyone to administer the oath.” Raja stressed the party would ask the court’s chief justice to step in promptly, warning, “The province cannot function without a government.”
In court, Raja noted PTI had notified the governor of a planned on Sunday oath-taking, only for Kundi to raise “strange objections” to Gandapur’s resignation a day earlier. Accusing the governor of intentional delays, Raja prompted the bench to request a report from the attorney general and adjourn until Tuesday.
Afridi’s rise has irked the federal government, which alleges PTI sympathises with terrorists. The young leader, who entered politics in 2015 and won a provincial seat in 2024, comes from a middle-class tribal family with no political pedigree. In his first assembly address post-election, Afridi lambasted federal policies, demanding a rethink of Pakistan’s Afghanistan strategy and local input to curb terrorism ravaging Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
“Where you are saying there is terrorism, take the local representatives, parliamentarians, people and elders into confidence,” he urged, advocating dialogue with tribal leaders. Decrying a “mindset” that ridiculed tribals over his nomination, Afridi said: “I did not become chief minister through a ‘parchi’ [chit]. I belong to a middle-class family from the tribal districts. Neither my father, nor my brother, nor my relatives are politicians.”
Thanking Khan, he said tribals celebrated his win despite smears against him. Vowing action starting Monday, Afridi proclaimed, “I am a champion of confrontational politics.” “I have no cars, no bungalow, no money, no greed for a chair [of CM],” he declared. “The day the leader says no chair, I will kick it.”
He warned that relocating Khan from Adiala jail without family or party consultation would trigger nationwide paralysis by PTI. “No one should think that I have come to this position and will deviate from [Imran’s] ideology,” Afridi said. Echoing PTI’s fraud claims from the Feb. 8, 2024, elections, he pledged an inquiry into stolen constituencies.
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