ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are voting today, Monday, to elect a new chief minister after the resignation of Ali Amin Gandapur who stepped down last week amid reports of internal party restructuring and rising militancy in the region.
Sohail Afridi, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s nominee for the top provincial post, filed his nomination papers on Sunday along with three opposition candidates representing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). The assembly is expected to confirm Afridi’s appointment, given PTI’s comfortable majority in the 145-member house.
A post shared by PTI on X confirmed Afridi’s nomination, saying:
“@SohailAfridiISF, the nominee for Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa named by Chairman Imran Khan, has submitted his nomination papers to the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, fulfilling all constitutional and legal requirements.”
PTI, founded by former prime minister Imran Khan and now led by loyalists while he remains imprisoned, governs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province bordering Afghanistan that has faced a resurgence of militant attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The vote marks the latest political test for the party, which has faced pressure from both the federal government and the military establishment since Khan’s removal from office in 2022.
