PTI backtracks on caretaker CM decision

PTI backtracks on caretaker CM decision

 

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership has backtracked on its controversial decision of proposing a little known tribal businessman Manzoor Afridi as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker chief minister.

The PTI has directed its leadership in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to choose another person with more public exposure for the highest administrative position in the province.

PTI central spokesman Fawad Chaudhry told The News by phone from Islamabad that PTI had not yet finalised Manzoor Afridi as the caretaker chief minister. He said his name was among some individuals being considered for the likely caretaker chief minister.

“Let me explain it to you that PTI has not yet approved Manzoor Afridi’s name for the chief minister’s office Yes, it’s true there were some names including that of Manzoor Afridi being considered for the caretaker setup in KP,” Fawad Chaudhry maintained.

He said consultations were in progress in Peshawar and Islamabad with the opposition parties to develop consensus on the caretaker chief minister as the elected government of PTI completed its five years tenure on Monday.

According to sources, Manzoor Afridi had been dropped from the race, but PTI leadership wanted someone from Fata to become the caretaker chief minister.

Manzoor Afridi belongs to Bara subdivision in Khyber Agency. His family has a vast business in the country and abroad.

Senior PTI members said the decision made in haste embarrassed the party leadership and put Manzoor Afridi and his family in an awkward situation.

Tribespeople close to Manzoor Afridi told The News that his family had started receiving felicitation from friends and relatives soon after his name was announced by the media as the caretaker chief minister.

“It was difficult for the party leadership to defend the decision made by a few PTI people in KP,” said one PTI leader in Islamabad.

The sources in the PTI told The News that PTI Chairman Imran Khan felt uncomfrtable during his first meeting with Manzoor Afridi, who was taken to Banigala by Pervez Khattak in a bid to impress his party chief that he had successfully resolved the issue of the caretaker chief minister with the consent of the opposition parties.

“I can’t share with you other details of the meeting, but Imran Khan told Pervez Khattak privately that he didn’t expect him to bring to him a person who was just nothing,” remarked a PTI insider.

He said another reason Imran didn’t like his nomination was Manzoor Afridi’s opposition to Fata’s merger with KP.

According to PTI sources, only Pervez Khattak and KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser held negotiations with opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rahman, who is the younger brother of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

”Actually it was known to very few people in the party that Manzoor Afridi was an asset to the JUI-F, but everybody knew in PTI that he was a close friend of Asad Qaiser,” said a PTI leader in Peshawar.

Pleading anonymity, he said that Pervez Khattak and Asad Qaiser hadn’t taken the rest of the party leadership, including the cabinet members, into confidence about their negotiations with the opposition leader for the caretaker chief minister.

He said it had surprised PTI cabinet members when they came to know about the caretaker chief minister through the media.

The PTI leadership said that another blunder of Pervez Khattak was to take Manzoor Afridi to Banigala for a meeting with Imran Khan.

It created doubts about credibility and impartiality of the proposed chief minister as certain opposition leaders started alleging that this was an attempt by the ruling party to rig the forthcoming election in KP.

Ayub Afridi, who was recently elected senator from KP on the PTI ticket and is the brother of the proposed chief minister, was also seen in the picture released by the PTI circles in Banigala.

The party leadership said the decision about nominating a person with zero public exposure or administrative experience gave an opportunity to the opposition parties to criticise the PTI leadership.

Politicians from mainstream political parties in the opposition, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz provincial president Amir Muqam, Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Sherpao and Awami National Party leader Zahid Khan had expressed concern over the nomination of Manzoor Afridi and his subsequent meeting with Imran Khan.