Rifts deepen within PTI over KP senate elections

PESHAWAR: Serious rifts have emerged within the ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) regarding the upcoming Senate elections. A dissident group of the party has nominated Advocate Mishal Yousafzai for the Senate seat vacated by Sania Nishtar, despite opposition from Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.

On the other hand, a four-member reconciliation committee has been formed to resolve the differences between the KP Chief Minister and the dissident group.

According to sources, the PTI KP dissident group claims that Imran Khan has nominated Mishal Yousafzai for the Senate seat vacated by Sania Nishtar, and PTI founder has directed Barrister Gohar in this regard.

Sources indicate that the election for the Senate seat will be held on July 29. Two Members of Provincial Assembly (MPAs) from the PTI dissident group, Shakeel Khan and Tariq Aryani, are expected to submit Mishal Yousafzai’s nomination papers today to the Election Commission as proposer and seconder. A leader of the dissident group has confirmed this to Hum News English.

The dissident group also reportedly expressed reservations about dropping previously nominated candidates for the 11 vacant Senate seats (elections to be held on July 21) and replacing them with new billionaire as expected candidates.

PTI says Centre not authorised to form panel on KP merged districts

According to sources, key leaders of the PTI dissident group—Atif Khan (MNA), Arbab Sher Ali (MNA), Sibghatullah Khan (MNA), Shakeel Khan (MPA), and former Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra—met with the party’s central General Secretary Salman Akram Raja in Islamabad yesterday. They conveyed their concerns, making it clear that the Chief Minister needs to improve his conduct, governance in the province must be fixed, and concrete steps must be taken to eliminate corruption from the province.

The central leadership of PTI has reportedly become active to resolve the ongoing differences between Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and the dissident group in view of the Senate elections and upcoming protest movement. In this context, a four-member reconciliation committee has been formed, which includes Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, Shehryar Afridi, and Amjad Ali Niazi.

Efforts were made through various sources to obtain the stance of the KP Chief Minister regarding this entire situation, but he could not be reached.

Faqeer Hussain