Imran to decide on reconciliation with establishment: Gandapur

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said on Tuesday PTI founder Imran Khan will decide on reconciliation with the establishment. He made these remarks while talking to reporters after meeting the former premier at the Adiala Jail.

Gandapur said both the establishment and institutions “are ours” but the decision for reconciliation with the establishment will be made by Khan, who is the only prime minister to be ousted through a no-confidence motion, reports Geo News.

Gandapur reiterated his call for the constitution of a judicial commission to investigate the May 9 violence. He discussed the final approval for the KP cabinet along with the political affairs. The KP chief minister said his leader’s morale was high and he advocated for justice in the country. He said Khan still stood firm and expressed the hope that he would be released soon.

Gandapur appealed to the chief justice to set up a commission, adding that the PTI workers, including women, were still languishing in jails. “No one has the right to steal the people’s mandate,” Gandapur said, adding that Imran Khan would be out of jail soon. “We will introduce such a system that no one violates the Constitution and the future generation remains safe,” he added.

He once again reiterated his suggestion that the chief justice of Pakistan should form a judicial commission on the May 9 violence and identify those responsible through the CCTV footage. He said the PTI will hold a nationwide protest on Sunday against rigging and not getting the reserved seats. “Our women are imprisoned. We never did politics to establish governments,” Gandapur said, adding that the federal government stole the people’s mandate.

“Going to the swearing-in ceremony of someone who stole the mandate would not have been a step as per the Constitution,” the CM claimed, adding that he had no personal enmity with anyone. “I will meet the prime minister for the sake of the province and discuss interprovincial issues and not talk about the mandate theft.”

Regarding the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet, the chief minister said he had consulted Imran. Meena Khan Afridi, Qasim Ali Shah, Fazal Shakoor Khan, Taimur Saleem Jhagra and Mian Khaleeq ur Rehman will be part of the cabinet from the Peshawar Division. Malakand’s Shafiullah, Shakeel Khan, Dr Amjad Ali, Fazal Hakeem and Riaz Khan will also receive portfolios along with Taj Muhammad and Arshad Ayub from the Hazara Division. Zahir Shah Toor, Faisal Tarakai, Abdul Karim Tordher, and Aqibullah will be part of the cabinet from Mardan, while Zahidullah Wazir from Bannu, and Aftab Alam Advocate from Kohat will be part of the cabinet.

“The entire record is in front of the nation. You can see for yourself the difference in the economic conditions between our government and theirs,” he maintained. “I got votes for the rights of the province and will go to any extent to defend them,” he maintained.

He further commented that women in every party were like his sisters, adding that he was in a parliamentary party meeting when the PMLN MPA in the KP Assembly was harassed. “When I reached the assembly, the incident had taken place,” Gandapur claimed. I had apologized to the PMLN lawmaker, he said.

The CM then announced Rs10,000 each for 8,500 households for Ramazan. Gandapur was elected as the 18th chief minister of KP on Friday after securing 90 votes.

Meanwhile, PTI senior leader Sher Afzal Marwat said PTI founder chairman Imran Khan had said that he would prefer to stay in jail for seven more years than to strike a deal. Interacting with journalists outside the Adiala Jail, he categorically said there would be no meeting with the ruling party. Marwat said the PTI founder said that his spouse Bushra Bibi had been kept in solitary confinement.

Marwat clarified that he had had a long relationship with the former NA speaker and on seeing him, he exchanged greetings with him and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who was sitting next to him in the assembly. “You people say we fight with everyone. When we meet someone, you object. If exchanging greetings is wrong, then I can apologise,” he said. To a question about the solution of issues on the floor of assembly, he said it was an issue created by the assembly that strangers were sitting in the legislature.

He said had all the people of Pakistan risen against tyranny and injustice, the air of fear would not have spread after May 9. “This fear has made the entire nation a psychological patient,” he remarked.

Marwat said his party was capable of ridding the country of the present economic situation, provided its snatched public mandate was given back. He pointed out the PTI founder had given instructions to continue the protest against the theft of public mandate in the recent elections. Likewise, he added Imran had given important responsibilities to Shahram Tarakai and Atif Khan. He clarified that they had written a letter to the IMF about the audit of elections.

Separately, talking to reporters, Asad Qaiser made it clear that they did not accept the incumbent government. He was responding to Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s offer of signing a charter of reconciliation for the country’s sake. He emphasized that those who committed dacoity on the public mandate were not worthy of holding dialogue with. He also said they would fight a legal battle against the theft of mandate and file a case against the Election Commission’s verdict on reserved seats.

The Election Commission, including its chief election commissioner, he said, must resign and added that they were considering moving the judicial commission. “We are ready but whosoever has the mandate should sit in the assembly. Our legal team is having consultations. We will file cases against the IGP Islamabad and others for changing the election results,” he maintained.

There could be no two constitutions in a country, he asserted while saying BAP, which had given reserved seat lists after the elections was given women reserved seats, whereas they (PTI) were denied by the Election Commission.

Asked would the party reopen doors for persons like Pervaiz Khattak, he said Imran was their leader and only he would decide on such matters. Qaiser said it was clear that their mandate had been snatched, leaving them with no option but to protest peacefully within the constitutional and legal ambit. Asad Qaiser added if the PTI was denied its rights, it will come out in all the provinces to snatch it.