ISLAMABAD – Following Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf’s historic victory in theProvince of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the political party was able to cleansweep the elections and come into power with a very heavy mandate, talks ofAtif Khan becoming the next Chief Minister of the province are certainlygathering momentum.
With a senior candidate like Pervez Khattak, who has had the opportunity ofheading the province recently as well, the question arises why is the ex CMnot likely to regain power?
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Senior journalist Iftikhar Firdous has said: “I have had the opportunity ofconversing with six high officials from the province of KP and everyone hascollectively informed me that the selection of Atif Khan to become theprovince’s next Chief was done prior to the General Elections.”
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He further went onto say: “There are two basic reasons why Pervez Khattakis likely to be ousted by Atif Khan. Firstly, according to my sources,Imran Khan wants a completely untainted government and having PervezKhattak as the provincial head will not fulfill this condition.
Also rumors emerged from within the Party’s camp that the ex-minister hasencircled at least 4 MPAs and MNAs who were all of the view that Khattakshould become CM. This ‘forward block’ of sorts is also a reason why AtifKhan is being entrusted with the all-important rank.”
It is also to be noted that PTI’s previous members that left the politicalparty blamed Pervez Khattak for their reason of exit, the most famous beingAyesha Gulalai who claimed that the KP government was being run under acorrupt CM who gets favored by chairman Imran Khan.
Talking about Atif Khan’s achievements in the past five years, the seniorjournalist further elaborated: “During his tenure as the Education Ministerof KP, Atif Khan enrolled over 68,000 deserving people in differentpositions in educational institutions. Other than that, Atif has no taintof corruption and therefore is a good option for Khan’s ‘Naya Pakistan’”.
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At the end of the day, the entire selection power lies in the hands ofchief Imran Khan who has just a few days left before the MPAs take oath.
By: Raccikh Asghar