ISLAMABAD: Federal government has launched a campaign to topple Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with former minister Amir Muqam tasked to muster as much political support to win a majority in the KP assembly, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
Toppling the PTI’s government is an uphill task. In the House of 124 lawmakers, PTI has a strength of 61. It has formed the government in alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) which has the support of 7members of the assembly. Two independent lawmakers also support the coalition government which increases the tally to 70.
On the contrary, the opposition also has considerable strength in the House. The opposition, after the recent support from ten members of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), who has recently been pushed out of the coalition government by PTI, has mustered a total strength of 53.
A well-placed source confided in this scribe that a coordinated campaign has been launched to win the support of the majority of lawmakers and all the disgruntled lawmakers of the PTI are being contacted with lucrative offers to win their support.
“KP Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra has held meetings with some of the lawmakers of PTI. Before departing the PTI, MNA Ayesha Gulalai had also held a meeting with Jhagra. She told Jhagra about her reservations against KP CM Pervez Khattak. The governor assured her full support and asked her to leave the party,” the source said.
The source said that Jhagra had also launched efforts to get the support of Tarakai family which has strength of five lawmakers.
“Jhagra has very cordial relations with the Tarakai family which has also been on a rocky path with Pervez Khattak. If five lawmakers of Taraki’s Awami Jamhoori Ittehad part ways with the PTI, it would be easy to destabilise the KP government,” the source said.
The source added that a major role has been assigned to Amir Muqam who is in touch with many PTI lawmakers who have been unhappy with the KP CM for ignoring their areas.
“The MPAs from Southern parts of KP including Tank, Lakki Marwat and Kohat are among potential dissenters PML-N is working upon. Moreover, some lawmakers from Hazara belt are also being approached by Amir Muqam,” the source added.
The source said that in the past four years, Khattak has ignored some lawmakers resulting in resentment.
The source added that Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman was also working hard to convince JI’s leadership to part ways with the PTI.
“Maulana Fazl has been working hard to convince the JI chief, Sirajul Haq, to revive alliance of religious political parties, MMA. He also is working to convince him to part ways with the PTI government,” the source added.
In a House of 124, PTI has the support of 56 members, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad has 5 members, JI has 7 members and independents are 2.
On Opposition benches are 53 members. Both JUI-F and PML-N have 16 lawmakers each. QWP has 10 members, Awami National Party (ANP) has 5 members and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has 6 members.
