Khalid Mohmand is seventh QWP MPA in KP to defect

PESHAWAR: The decision by lawmaker Khalid Khan Mohmand to quit the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) has left the party with only three MPAs out of the 10 who were elected in the May 2013 general election.

The MPAs still with the QWP are its provincial president Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, central secretary general Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli and Arshad Umarzai. They have and would remain loyal to QWP. No other party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has suffered the loss of so many lawmakers. It is happening on the eve of the July 2018 general election as politicians scramble to join parties that seem to have better chances of success.

There had been speculations for months that Khalid Mohmand, who was elected from Charsadda, was on the verge of abandoning QWP. It finally happened recently when he met Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in Islamabad in the company of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fazal Mohammad Khan, who also belongs to Charsadda. Normally, lawmakers and other important politicians joining the PTI are invited to Imran Khan's Bani Gala residence to make the announcement in his presence.

Khalid Mohmand, whose performance as a lawmaker was lacklustre, was reportedly upset because the QWP wasn't willing to give him the ticket for contesting from his constituency, PK-56 Charsadda. Sikandar Sherpao, elected from an adjacent constituency in Charsadda, wanted to contest from PK-56. Khalid Mohmand joined the PTI to seek its ticket for contesting the coming polls. He was promptly welcomed by Pervez Khattak, who is frantically trying to collect as many legislators and electables as possible with no consideration for their ideology and background in a bid to win as many seats as possible and in the process also strengthen his own position in the PTI for again becoming the chief minister. If Khalid Mohmand is awarded the PTI ticket, it would certainly annoy old and committed party workers who were hoping to get the ticket.