Gandapur on collision course with Centre, stays away during PM’s first visit to Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was absent during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s first visit to Peshawar on Wednesday. Ali Amin neither received the PM nor attended the meeting at the Governor’s House.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made a short visit to Peshawar on Wednesday to distribute relief cheques to the rain-affected people, but KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was absent during the function.

Sources confirmed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reached Peshawar by helicopter where Governor Ghulam Ali, Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, and IG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Akhtar Hayat Gandapur received him but the KP chief minister was not present for the reception.

Sources close to the chief minister told The News that Ali Amin was not present in Peshawar but had gone to Islamabad on Tuesday where he met Imran Khan and reached Peshawar late evening to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the provincial cabinet at the Governor House.

However, PTI leader and newly-elected minister Zahir Shah Toru told this scribe that Ali Amin Gandapur did not attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif because Tehreek-e-Insaf believes that its mandate was stolen and the prime minister was not an elected member with Form 45 but has been elected through rigging.

It should be noted that Ali Amin Gandapur had refused to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the prime minister and to recognize his legitimate status.