Sohail Afridi elected as new chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sohail Afridi delivers a speech at the KP Assembly after his election as the new chief minister following resignation by Ali Amin Gandapur.
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf MPA from PK-70, Khyber-II, Sohail Afridi on Monday was elected the new chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during a provincial assembly session despite a prevailing controversy over the resignation of outgoing Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.
Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, who pushed ahead with the election process of the leader of the house despite the opposition’s walkout, announced that the three opposition candidates – Maulana Lutfur Rehman of JUI (F), Sardar Shah Jehan Yousaf of PML (N), and Arbab Zarak Khan of the PPP – all received zero votes.
Noting that three members of the assembly were out of the country, he announced that Sohail Afridi had won the election after securing 90 votes, prompting chants in favour of the PTI leader to ring out in the assembly hall.
Afridi needed to secure at least 73 votes in the 145-member house to win the election.
Afridi then proceeded to deliver an emphatic speech in which he expressed his admiration of and loyalty to party’s founding chairman Imran Khan.
Speaking in the assembly, Afridi said that he was grateful to Imran for choosing someone who was a mere worker, belonged to a middle-class family and did not have familial links to politics. He further said that he belonged to the tribal districts and was proud of his background.
Calling himself a “champion of politics of protest”, he said that he had nothing to lose. “No cars, no bungalows, no riches and no greed for the seat. The day my leader tells me to vacate the seat, I will kick it to the side.”
During his speech, Afridi also stated that military operations were not the “solution to terrorism” and called on the federal government to engage in dialogue, and involve the people of the province and the government in devising a solution.
Meanwhile, leader of the Opposition Dr Ibadullah said they did not accept Afridi as the new chief minister.
He said that at present there were “two chief ministers” in the province as Gandapur’s resignation had not been accepted yet.
It should be mentioned that while Gandapur has submitted two separate resignations to Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, both have been returned over “disparate signatures”. Kundi has summoned Gandapur on October 15 (Wednesday) to settle the matter.
After election of the new leader of the house, Speaker Babar Saleem Swati said in a post on X that he had “formally sent the summary to the KP governor for (the) oath-taking”. The PTI leadership has also approached the Peshawar High Court to nominate Speaker of the provincial assembly to administer oath to the chief minister-elect Sohail Afridi. – By Our Report
