ISLAMABAD
The move by Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) to replace Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani with a party loyalist has hit snags, whereas the Awami National Party (ANP) says that if this has to be done, the governor should be apolitical and a technocrat, suggesting former provincial chief secretary Azam Khan as best suited for the job.
ANP Senior Vice President Haji Adeel told Pakistan Today that his party was against appointing a politician as the provincial governor. “Yes, the PPP had contacted the ANP leadership for replacing the provincial governor with a PPP leader.
But the ANP resisted the move on the argument that a governor with a political background was a complete failure,” he said. Adeel said that the PPP had not contacted the ANP after the party had opposed the appointment of a political governor.
“We think that a governor should be a neutral person, as previous experiences of appointing political governors have failed miserably,” the ANP leader said. When asked to give some examples, Adeel referred to the governors of Punjab and Sindh.
“PPP’s Salmaan Taseer in Punjab and MQM’s Ishratul Ebad have failed to deliver and that is why the ANP thinks that a governor should not have a political background,” he added.