QWP ministers resign from KP govt

PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) chairman Aftab Sherpao on Sunday formally announced resignation of his party’s ministers and advisors from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

He maintained that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) head Imran Khan had pushed his party towards isolation. “We are no more part of the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as our ministers and advisors have tendered resignations after the party’s Central Executive Council meeting,” former federal interior minister Aftab Sherpao told a news conference here.

QWP provincial head and former senior minister Sikandar Sherpao, former ministers Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, Arshad Umarzai, Abdul Karim Khan, Bakht Baidar Khan and others were present on the occasion.

Accusing the PTI of breaching the agreement it had signed with the QWP, Aftab Sherpao said the Imran Khan-led party showed immaturity as it didn’t understand his party’s stance on the issue of the Panama Papers leaks.

“We had a principled stance on this issue. We wanted to wait for the apex court’s decision after submission of the JIT report. We accepted the verdict of the Supreme Court that disqualified Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister,” he maintained.

He recalled that his party sided with the opposition on the issue of the Panama Papers leaks. However, he said that like other political parties, the QWP too was free to go by its manifesto and agenda. He argued that the QWP was part of the coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but in the Centre his party was not bound to follow the viewpoint of PTI on various issues.

“Under an agreement, we had re-joined the provincial government on the request of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak,” Aftab Sherpao recalled. He pointed out that the chief minister, who was signatory to the agreement, should have consulted the QWP leadership before ending the alliance. “He (Pervez Khattak) was well aware of the situation. He must honour the agreement,” he said.  Aftab Sherpao made it clear that the QWP would not become part of any move to derail democracy in the country. In reply to a question, he said the PTI leadership was moving towards isolation.

“The PTI is seeking political martyrdom in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as its performance has been poor despite remaining in power for more than four years,” he opined. “There are differences among some PTI leaders and its central leadership is trying to put the blame on others in a bid to hide their own weaknesses,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, Sikandar Sherpao in his resignation letter said that looking down upon other political parties has become second nature of PTI as it doesn’t respect the independent point of view of its coalition partners. Pointing out that “this sorry state of affairs cannot continue any further,” he said his party had decided to end this coalition in the province.

Sikandar Sherpao, who is provincial chairman of QWP and was senior minister with the portfolio of irrigation and social welfare, recalled that his party had a written agreement with the QWP for “dispute resolution mechanism” but this wasn’t put into practice. He complained that most of the agreed points for the welfare of the people were not implemented by the PTI within the framework of their agreement despite reminders by the QWP. He said QWP had serious reservations such as the solo flight of the PTO on all provincial and national issues because the PTI has no culture of consulting its coalition partners. He added that QWP didn’t make these issues public as the spirit of coalition demands “not to wash dirty linen in public.”

This is second time since the May 2013 general election that the PTI and QWP have parted company after remaining allies in the coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The first time the QWP was forced to quit the government was in October 2013 when Chief Minister Pervez Khattak sacked two QWP ministers – Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussain Tanoli – on corruption charges on the directives of PTI head Imran Khan. Sikandar Sherpao wasn’t sacked, but he resigned from the cabinet in solidarity with his two party colleagues. In October 2015, the PTI again invited the QWP to rejoin the coalition government. Sikandar Sherpao and Anisa Zeb Tahirkhel became ministers and Arshad Umarzai from Charsadda and Abdul Karim from Swabi were made advisors to the chief ministers.