- Nominated KP CM served as minister for sports and tourism in previous PTI govt
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday nominated Mahmood Khan, an MPA-elect from PK-9 Swat, as the next chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The party’s official Twitter handle also confirmed his nomination to the CM slot, followed by confirmations from the PTI leadership in Islamabad and Peshawar.
The new KP CM-designate belongs to village Kharerai of tehsil Matta in district Swat. He was born in 1972. He belongs to a middle class family. He completed his early education in Matta and college education from Peshawar. He has a Masters in Agricultural Sciences from KP Agriculture University.
He defeated Awami National Party’s (ANP) Ayub Khan Ashari in last month’s elections by securing 25,697 votes. He was first elected from Matta to KP Assembly in 2013 after defeating the same opponent. He has served as Home, and Irrigation and Sports Minister in previous KP government.
He is the first ever politician from Malakand Division to be elected to the top executive office of KP.
He participated in the 2008 local elections as an independent candidate and was elected the Union Council Nazim for Kheri.
Although his family was always associated with the Pakistan People’s Party, Mahmood joined the PTI in 2012 and has risen to the rank of president of PTI Malakand division.
In 2014, during his previous term, Mehmood Khan was investigated for alleged charges of corruption. He had transferred government allocated discretionary funds to the amount of Rs 1.8 million to his personal account, which he claimed was done mistakenly. Later on, he was ‘exonerated’ of corruption charges by a committee formed by the provincial government.
The then minister for agriculture had acknowledged the fact that Rs1.8 million had been transferred from his discretionary fund as minister to his personnel account. His argument for the act was that it had happened due to lack of understanding on his part regarding the system but there was no bad intention behind transferring amount from official to personal account.
The future KP CM has already been given a time frame to prove his mettle in the province as prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan announced that he would replace the next chief minister for the province and his ministers if they failed to deliver the goods within three to six months of assuming office.
Talking to a private media outlet, Mahmood thanked Imran Khan for trusting him and said that he will work round the clock to fulfil Imran’s vision and work closely on party’s manifesto. He also reiterated the commitment that the PTI will show better performance than the past in the province.
It is pertinent to mention here that Mahmood Khan is a billionaire who owns 55 shops and has a bank balance of over Rs40 million besides owning 87 kanal.
