Dubai: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is now facing another challenge to ‘discipline’ his party’s elected parliamentarians who have started raising questions against performance of the senior leaders.
At least three provincial ministers belonging Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were sacked on Sunday following reports of friction with the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
A notification was issued to remove the ministers by the provincial administration cabinet wing. The sacked ministers include: Muhammad Atif Khan, provincial minister for sports, culture and tourism; Shahram Khan Tarakai, minister for health and Shakeel Ahmed, minister for revenue and estate.
Pressure group
The move came just two days after local media was rife with reports of a pressure group emerging in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwar province, allegedly led by Muhammad Atif Khan, sports and tourism minister, following a showdown with KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in a cabinet meeting a few days ago. Atif Khan was also a strong candidate for the post of chief minister after Imran Khan’s PTI won the elections in July 2018.
Dispute
Following a dispute over a recent cabinet reshuffle, Atif Khan threw a lavish dinner for provincial lawmakers on Friday night apparently to muster support to take on Chief Minister Mahmood Khan amid reports of an intensifying jockeying for power between the two, reported Dawn news.
Around 25 members of the KP provincial assembly were invited to the dinner at the senior minister’s Hayatabad residence to muster support to ‘revolt’ against the chief minister.
The media reports suggested that the reason for the rift between Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Atif Khan was the rejection of the latter’s nominees in the recent cabinet reshuffle.
The PTI, which formed governments in the Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Centre following the general election in 2018, has recently been facing problems in both provinces and the Centre after similar cracks appeared among its lawmakers.
Imran Khan in Lahore
Prime Minister Imran Khan also visited Lahore on Sunday following recent reports of a forward bloc being formed by a group of PTI Punjab parliamentarians against Chief Minister Usman Buzdar over governance issues in the province. PTI’s key ally in Punjab — the PML-Q also voiced its grievances with the set-up, publicly criticising the government and threatening to take back its support in the Centre and the Punjab.
Similarly, the MQM-P, which is the PTI’s coalition partner at the federal level, has also said it is unhappy with the government and one of its (MQM’s) federal ministers, Khalid Mqbool Siddiqui, has for the time being given up his cabinet portfolio as talks between both parties to get him back on the cabinet have thus far remained unfruitful.
