CM, key cabinet members lock horns

PESHAWAR: Though Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan emerged victorious in the legal battle against his political rival Nawaz Sharif who was disqualified by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers leaks case on Friday, his party is facing internal rift in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak is said to have developed differences with provincial Minister for Education Mohammad Atif Khan, who belongs to Mardan and is a central office-bearer of PTI, and Minister for Health Shahram Khan Tarakai hailing from Swabi district.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has been making efforts to remove the differences between the two sides.

According to senior PTI members, he has not been able to resolve the issue and the ‘deadlock’ still persisted.

“The issue is serious as the two ministers recently met Imran Khan in Nathiagali to tender resignations, but he didn’t accept the resignations. The PTI chairman assured them to resolve the differences once the Supreme Court case regarding the Panama Papers issue ended,” said a source close to Atif Khan.

He said that Imran Khan had also assured Asad Qaiser to help him resolve the issue after PTI’s public meeting being held in Islamabad on Sunday to celebrate the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister.

PTI insiders told The News that apparently the issue of the distribution of funds for the constituencies of the two cabinet members was said to have created differences between Pervez Khattak and Atif Khan and Shahram Tarakai, but they believed it was not the only reason.

Sources close to the two unhappy ministers said both of them had long sensed Pervez Khattak’s “well-organised” campaign against them and they finally brought the issue into the knowledge of Imran Khan.

“The differences cropped up during the Senate election when Pervez Khattak used Shahram Tarakai’s opponent MPA Babar Saleem as proposer for nomination of his close relative to contest for a Senate seat,” said a senior PTI member close to the Tarakai family.

Pleading anonymity, he said the Tarakai family suspected that the chief minister had allegedly backed Babar Saleem in his clash with Shahram Tarakai and his uncle Mohammad Ali Tarakai when they nearly came to blows.

“After the unfortunate incident that occurred on the floor of the provincial assembly, the Tarakai family took up the issue with Pervez Khattak and told him that they supported him when PTI MPAs Qurban Ali Khan and Yasin Khalil launched a campaign against him,” said the source close to the Tarakai family.

The issue was resolved later after the Tarakai family got Imran Khan involved in it. The Tarakai family also made it clear to Imran Khan and Pervez Khattak that they would willingly quit the government and focus on their political party Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) if the PTI didn’t need their support.

The AJIP had one MNA and five MPAs when it was merged into PTI after Imran Khan visited the Tarakai House in Swabi in 2015. Shahram Tarakai’s father Liaqat Khan Tarakai was subsequently elected as Senator on the PTI ticket.

According to sources, differences between the chief minister and the two ministers once again surfaced when they felt the Pervez Khattak was backing their political opponents in their native areas.

They said that Atif Khan complained to Imran Khan and other party leaders that the chief minister had started supporting his political opponents, including two PTI MPAs in his native district Mardan, against him after rumours began circulating that Atif Khan could be the PTI’s candidate for chief minister’s office if the party won the next general election.

When reached on phone, Shahram Tarakai and Atif Khan confirmed their differences with the chief minister, but declined making further comments.

Both of them hoped that Asad Qaiser and some other party members would soon resolve the issue.

PTI office-bearers suspect that Pervez Khattak had strengthened his grip on the party in KP by bringing together all his old colleagues and friends from the Pakistan People’s Party to the PTI.

“Pervez Khattak would give tough time to Imran Khan and other party leaders if he felt they were taking action against him,” said a PTI member.

It may be added that Shahram Tarakai and Atif Khan are close relatives.

PTI’s former MPA and minister Ziaullah Afridi believed that Pervez Khattak would not spare Shahram Tarakai and Arif Khan.

“Pervez Khattak has a track record of targetting all those people who in his view are a potential threat to his political career. He first targetted Shaukat Yousafzai, then Yasin Khalil and later me. Let me assure you, he would never spare Shahram Tarakai and Atif Khan,” said the former minister.

Efforts were made to seek comments of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Information Minister Shah Farman, but they neither attended phone calls of this correspondent nor replied to text messages delivered to their cellphone numbers.