The rise and fall of former PTI minister Ziaullah Afridi

PESHAWAR: The rise of Ziaullah Afridi was as quick as his fall.His rise was meteoric. Not long ago he was the envy of fellow lawmakers and his competitors as he had quickly risen up the party ranks. According to his supporters, he was once described by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan as one of his tigers.
And his fall has been dramatic. Presently, he is in deep trouble and his ordeal could last long. Soon after his arrest by the Ehtesab Commission on charges of illegal mining and misuse of powers, Ziaullah Afridi was sacked as minister. His membership of the PTI was also suspended.
He needs to clear his name from charges of corruption and misuse of power if he wants his party membership to be restored. Getting back his berth in the cabinet is going to be a tall order.
A bitter Ziaullah Afridi was so angry with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak that he blamed him for his troubles and used strong language against him when he was produced in the Ehtesab Court for the first time. This may have permanently damaged his relations with the chief minister and deprived him of the sympathies of the PTI leadership.
Ziaullah Afridi’s family shifted from its native Jamrud in Khyber Agency to Peshawar in 1999. After a lot of struggle, he became a contractor and set up his construction firm.
In 2011 he joined the PTI but then swiftly overtook many older members of the party. He contested the intra-party elections as a candidate of the Youth Panel and stood second in Peshawar and third in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He wasn’t the frontrunner to get the PTI ticket for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s urban Peshawar constituency PK-1 in the May 2013 general election, but was preferred over the favourite Badshah Gul and went on to win the seat by polling more than 22,000 votes. To compensate Badshah Gul, the PTI chairman Imran Khan promised to vacate the National Assembly seat NA-1 Peshawar after winning it in the general election and field him in the by-election. Imran easily won the NA-1 seat against ANP’s Ghulam Ahmad Bilour by a huge margin and then vacated it as planned. Badshah Gul, a political novice, was given the ticket to contest the by-election only to lose the seat to Ghulam Ahmad Bilour.
As for Ziaullah Afridi, he continued to climb up the ladder, becoming an advisor to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak with the portfolio of mines and mineral development. Before long he got promotion as a minister holding on to the same prized portfolio.
When the provincial government allocated billions of rupees for Peshawar’s beautification project together with improvement of the city’s drainage and sewerage system, Ziaullah Afridi was chosen as its focal person from among the 10 PTI MPAs elected from the Peshawar city district. It was a major responsibility entrusted to him as he had now powers to serve the people of Peshawar and also oblige his voters.
Having reached the pinnacle of his career, he couldn’t really have risen any further due to some of his shortcomings even though his supporters are now boasting that he was poised to eventually become the chief minister in place of Pervez Khattak. They also believe that Ziaullah Afridi’s meteoric rise had earned him the jealousy and enmity of some of his rivals in the PTI.
If one listens to Ziaullah Afridi’s family members and supporters, his contributions to the PTI cause are unmatched. They claimed he supported the Insaf Students Federation at every step, participated wholeheartedly in the party’s “dharna” in Islamabad and also sent a large number of party workers by renting vehicles, campaigned for PTI candidates to win traders’ polls for the first time in Peshawar in Jehangirpura and Chitrali bazaars, got approval for the Peshawar Chamber of Commerce, organized hundreds of medical camps for deprived communities, led the PTI in Peshawar’s Town 1 to win 21 out of the 25 local government seats, and brought prominent political activists such as Naveed Anjum in Upper Dir and Abidullah Yousafzai into the PTI fold.
Ziaullah Afridi’s supporters also credit him for initiating reforms in the Mines and Minerals Development Department and taking steps to check illegal mining by getting registered 97 FIRs, including 17 in the chief minister’s home district of Nowshera. It may be added that the major charges against Ziaullah Afridi pertain to illegal mining and already two references against him have been filed in the Ehtesab Court. In one reference, he was accused of causing Rs3 billion loss to the public exchequer from the Tangi chromite mine.
On his part, Ziaullah Afridi in his brief interaction with the media during hearings and through his lawyers has been claiming his innocence. His supporters believe he had become a victim of personal vendetta by pointing accusing fingers at the chief minister. Many PTI workers and voters from his PK-1 constituency have been staging protests at his hearings against his arrest and some of the elected councillors have threatened to resign to show solidarity with him. They have all pledged to stand by him as long as he isn’t proven guilty. As that may not happen any time soon, Ziaullah Afridi’s case will continue to haunt the ruling PTI and cause friction among party workers who support or oppose him.