The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced that retired Justice Dost Muhammad Khan will be the caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa.
Addressing a press conference outside the ECP office in Islamabad, Additional Secretary of ECP, Dr Akhtar Nazeer said that the KP government and Opposition had sent the commission four names to be considered for the post.
The JUI-F had proposed Justice Khan’s name along with businessman Manzoor Afridi, whereas PTI had suggested the names of two bureaucrats Ijaz Qureshi and Hamayatullah Khan and retired Justice Dost Muhammad.
According to the procedure set under the 18th Constitution Amendment the names were forwarded to the ECP after members of the parliamentary committee failed to arrive at a consensus as both the sides continued to stick to their nominees.
Earlier, the PTI had agreed on the name of Manzoor Afridi for the caretaker chief minister and the party even released an official handout and a picture of Afridi with party chairman Imran Khan at his Banigala residence.
However, within 24 hours, the PTI reversed its decision and withdrew the name of Afridi. The opposition parties in the KP Assembly had alleged that the then chief minister Pervez Khattak and the JUI-F leaders had received huge amounts from Manzoor Afridi for his nomination as the chief minister.
The charges, however, were denied both by Khattak and the JUI-F leadership. Manzoor Afridi is known as the financier of the JUI-F and his brother Ayub Afridi is a Senator on PTI’s ticket.
The PTI chief reportedly reversed the decision after getting reports on the social media that Manzoor Afridi had sponsored the JUI-F campaign against the Fata merger.
Source: Dawn
