Govt, Opp fail to reach consensus on caretaker KP CM

PESHAWAR: The government and opposition on Tuesday failed to build consensus on a suitable person for the office of caretaker chief minister to run affairs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) till the upcoming general elections.

Former provincial minister and Awami National Party (ANP) Secretary General Sardar Hussain Babak has held both Pervez Khattak and Maulana Lutfur Rahman responsible for the deadlock as instead of a competent and impartial decision, they made attempts to please favourites.

The hours-long meeting between outgoing Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Opposition Leader Rahman at Speaker House Peshawar concluded without any result late on Monday night. Beside Speaker Asad Qaisar, the meeting was also attended by ex-provincial ministers Muhammad Atif Khan and Shah Farman.

At the very outset of the meeting, Pervez Khattak informed Rahman about the Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) leadership’s decision of rejecting the nomination of Manzoor Afridi for the office of caretaker CM. In this respect, he proposed names of former senior bureaucrats like Shakeel Afridi, Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed, Sang-e-Marjan Khan, Ghulam Dastgir and others. But Rahman reportedly insisted on his proposal for Manzoor Afridi, a billionaire from Bara, Khyber Agency. Pervez Khattak, however, denied that option from being exercised.

Though both Khattak and Rahman in their meeting on May 26 agreed on the nomination of Manzoor Afridi as caretaker CM, ANP’s Sardar Hussain Babak during an assembly session on May 27 raised objection to the nomination. He questioned Manzoor Afridi’s suitability for the office and said that “there are reports regarding heavy payment made by Manzoor to both opposition leader and chief minister as well”. He was later supported by leaders of other opposition parties and former information minister Shah Farman assured that Manzoor Afridi will not be on the list of nominees for the office.

However, in light of reservations by different opposition parties as well as by some of PTI stalwarts, Imran Khan also rejected nomination of Manzoor Afridi.

Manzoor Afridi is associated with Fazlur Rahman’s Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (JUI-F).  His cousin Ayub Afridi was recently elected as a senator on a PTI ticket. His second cousin, Mirza Afridi was elected as a senator on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ticket. His nephew Javed Afridi is the owner of the Pakistan Super League franchise Peshawar Zalmay and another cousin is associated with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).