Hailing from a well-known Pashtun tribe, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur and his brother Faisal Amin Khan (who has now submitted his nomination for NA-44) are all set to steer Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a new direction.

Gandapur is a non-Pashtun tribe based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to oral tradition, the family started when a Sayyid mystic Gaisu Daraz Shah married a woman from a Sherani Pashtun tribe. They then migrated from Afghanistan and settled in a village named Rohri in Kullachi tehsil.

Ali Amin’s grandfather was amongst the first Muslim assistant political agents posted in North Waziristan. His grandfather’s uncle Sardar Aurangzeb Khan was the first chief minister of the North Western Frontier Province (1943-1945). Ali Amin’s father took an early retirement from the armed forces to join politics. He contested elections independently.

Gandapurs have always been in the good books of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and enjoyed support of the masses.

Before Ali Amin joined Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in 2007, the family had supported the PML-N. Ali Amin was sworn in as the 22nd chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on March 6, 2024. He had received 90 votes out of 106 in the Provincial Assembly. Since then, he has had several meetings with Imran Khan in Adiala Jail. He has also met with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif regarding financial issues and pending payments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He had assured the latter that the provincial government will support the federation.

For a start, he has sought to break the ice between the provincial and federal leaderships. He has also pledged extensive reforms in the province promising to bring an end to corruption and maintaining law and order in the province.

On March 19, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi issued non-bailable warrants for his arrest in a case related to May 9 riots. Legal matters may take a while to resolve. It may be too early yet to comment on the fate of that case.

On the face of it, Ali Amin is working on his governance priorities. It will not be a cakewalk.

Extract: For a start, he tried to break the ice between the provincial and federal leaderships. He pledged extensive reforms in the province promising to bring an end to corruption and maintaining law and order in the province.

Security, food scarcity, unemployment, water management and environmental degradation are some of the major challenges he will be faced with. Since the day he was sworn in as chief minister, there have been 27 terrorist attacks in the province. According to the data maintained by The Khorasan Diary, dozens of policemen were injured in these attacks that varied from target killing, suicide bombing and cross border firing to blasts caused using improvised explosive device.

While Ali Amin focuses on the security challenges, his brother is helping him on the governance front.

Speaking to The News on Sunday, Faisal Amin says, “We are working on three types of projects at the moment. First, there is the Gomal Zam Dam model in South Waziristan, where the frequency of terrorist attacks went down after economic activity picked up and more people got employment. We are planning similar development with Chashma Right Bank Lift Canal and Tank Zam Dam in Tank. The province will get 2,400 cusec water from the CRBC that will irrigate around 300,000 acres of land. Another 100,000 acres will be irrigated by Tam Zam Dam besides the production of 25.5 megawatt electricity.”

Faisal Amin says he has been given a roadmap to focus on protection of environment, revenue generation from the mining sector, new legislation lease policy and digitalisation of governance in the province.

“People have given us a clear mandate. We are going to work for them. Ali and I are on the same page when it comes to serving our people,” says Faisal.

The writer is the editor of The Khorasan Diary. He can be reached on X @iftikharfirdous