PTI majority hangs by a thread in KP amid JI rift, disgruntled MPAs
The number of PTI MPAs in the assembly has decreased from 61 to 60 after Ziaullah Afridi's switchover to PPP
August 29, 2017
PESHAWAR: Amid an increase in disgruntled party MPAs and disagreements with its ally in Kyhber Pakhtunwa, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) faces a dire situation in which it could lose its majority in the KP Assembly.
The number of PTI MPAs in the assembly decreased from 61 to 60 after disgruntled former party MPA Ziaullah Afridi defected on Monday to the Pakistan Peoples Party after being rebuffed by PTI.
Ziaullah was arrested on corruption charges by the KP Ehtesab Commission earlier, which filed references against him in the accountability court.
He was the first minister to have been arrested during the rule of his own party. The PTI leadership subsequently expelled him from the party.
Afridi has been particularly critical of KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak since his release from jail. He accused him inside and outside the provincial assembly of failing to implement the PTI manifesto and also of involvement in corruption.
Meanwhile, PTI and its ally in KP, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), are also at loggerheads over the latter’s demand that the PTI government sack Bank of Khyber's Managing Director for levelling “serious baseless allegations” against its member and Finance Minister Muzaffar Said last year.
In a JI parliamentary session on Saturday, headed by senior minister Anayatullah, the party said that its reservations regarding the Bank of Khyber were intact.
The possibility to resign from their respective offices and parting ways with the KP government was mulled in the session attended by Said and MPA Haji Habib ul Rehman.
The coalition partner expressed its concern over Khattak delaying the decision to remove the bank's managing director.
A decision to not grant more time to the government on the matter was made by the party.
