https://arab.news/4en33
- Imran Khan’s PTI nominates Sohail Afridi after Gandapur resigns amid security and party concerns
- Provincial assembly expected to confirm PTI’s nominee as opposition fields rival candidates
ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are voting today, Monday, to elect a new chief minister after the resignation of Ali Amin Gandapur who stepped down last week amid reports of internal party restructuring and rising militancy in the region.
Sohail Afridi, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s nominee for the top provincial post, filed his nomination papers on Sunday along with three opposition candidates representing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). The assembly is expected to confirm Afridi’s appointment, given PTI’s comfortable majority in the 145-member house.
A post shared by PTI on X confirmed Afridi’s nomination, saying:
“@SohailAfridiISF, the nominee for Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa named by Chairman Imran Khan, has submitted his nomination papers to the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, fulfilling all constitutional and legal requirements.”
PTI, founded by former prime minister Imran Khan and now led by loyalists while he remains imprisoned, governs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province bordering Afghanistan that has faced a resurgence of militant attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The vote marks the latest political test for the party, which has faced pressure from both the federal government and the military establishment since Khan’s removal from office in 2022.
The nomination of Afridi, a legislator from Bara district, comes days after Gandapur’s sudden resignation, which PTI officials said was ordered directly by Khan over security and governance concerns.
PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said last week that Khan had personally decided to make the change, citing “the worst terrorism situation in KP.”
“There have been record incidents this year,” Raja told reporters. “Khan sahib said there is no choice for him now but to make the change.”
Gandapur, who became chief minister in March last year after PTI swept provincial elections, was viewed as one of Khan’s most loyal allies. His removal, however, underscores ongoing divisions within the party’s leadership amid attempts to maintain its control in the province while under legal and political pressure at the national level.
Analysts say Afridi’s appointment is expected to consolidate PTI’s grip on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, its political stronghold since 2013, even as Pakistan faces mounting security challenges along its border with Afghanistan and economic instability at home.