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ISLAMABAD - Ahead of shaking hands again in Khyber Pukhtunkhaw, both Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) are looking for a face-saving that could justify their new found friendship.
The two are ready to become partners in the provincial government but internal party meetings are filled with questions on how to defend the re-alliance less than two years after they had accused each other of corruption and misrule.
“The question arises that why are we opting for the same party whose members were sacked on allegations of corruption. We need to see if they have changed,” senior PTI leader Arif Alvi said while talking to The Nation here on Tuesday.
“If the reasons that were the basis for their (the QWP ministers) sacking have been corrected, then there is no harm in joining hands with them,” he remarked.
Alvi foresaw that the people and media will question about the PTI credibility when “we again embrace the QWP”.
“I can agree if they don’t re-induct the corruption-tainted ministers. I understand some compromises can be made due to necessities. (Chief Minister) Pervez Khattak should know what he is doing,” the PTI leader said.
“The PTI has offered us the slots of a senior minister, a minister and deputy speaker,” revealed QWP lawmaker Gohar Nawaz Khan.
“Of course, the senior minister will be Sikandar Khan Sherpao. A minister has to be chosen from among us and the Deputy Speaker (slot vacant) is likely to be a woman (Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli),” he told The Nation.
Khan, a ministerial candidate, said that the QWP members sacked by CM Khattak, Bakhat Baidar and Ibrar Hussain, wanted to get back in the provincial cabinet to improve their credibility.
“Of course they claim they are clean, so they are pressing the party to nominate them for the ministers’ job,” Khan said.
The QWP leader said, he was elected as independent from Haripur and joined the party with the assurance that he would be made minister after 18 months. “The party quit the coalition so that could not happen. Now I am the candidate for the ministerial slot,” Khan said.
Media reports however, said Sultan Mohammed Khan, a QWP member from Charsadda, may be nominated as ministerial post.
Khan said, 95 percent of differences with the PTI have been resolved. “We will improve the working relationship as we go on,” he added.
He said, the QWP hopes to continue alliance with the PTI for the rest of the three years (government term) as coalition partners.
Khan maintained that his party has good ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and will work together as partners of the PTI.
Earlier, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan had said the JI had no reservations against QWP joining the PTI-led provincial government.
The JI leader said that his party would not oppose the QWP’s comeback as a coalition partner.
Some sources said the QWP can replace JI as PTI’s ally in the government as the PTI and the JI had developed differences during the Local Governments elections in the province.
Differences between PTI and the JI deepened after a war of words over alleged rigging. JI leaders, including Prof. Ibrahim Khan, have been alleging that the PTI used government machinery to manipulate the election results at certain polling stations in the province where JI candidates were in good position. Despite their reservations, the JI has said it does not intend to leave the coalition. But insiders in the party say its central leadership is mulling to quit the provincial coalition and join the federal government where the ruling PML-N is ready to welcome it.
PTI sources said the JI’s statements against the PTI irritated Imran Khan, who was already unhappy with the JI’s refusal to withdraw its candidate in Karachi’s by-polls in favour of PTI.
The QWP performed poorly in the LG elections, and naturally saw the offer as an opportunity.
The QWP had quit the PTI coalition in KP in November 2013 after the removal of two of its ministers from the provincial cabinet on charges of corruption.
The PTI has 56 seats in the Khyber Pukhtunkhaw Assembly, making it the single largest party. JI has 7 members, 3 of them cabinet members and QWP has 10 members in the house of 124.
PTI, QWP look for face-saving as re-alliance ‘imminent’
The two are ready to become partners in the provincial government but internal party meetings are filled with questions on how to defend the re-alliance less than two years after they had accused each other of corruption and misrule.
“The question arises that why are we opting for the same party whose members were sacked on allegations of corruption. We need to see if they have changed,” senior PTI leader Arif Alvi said while talking to The Nation here on Tuesday.
“If the reasons that were the basis for their (the QWP ministers) sacking have been corrected, then there is no harm in joining hands with them,” he remarked.
Alvi foresaw that the people and media will question about the PTI credibility when “we again embrace the QWP”.
“I can agree if they don’t re-induct the corruption-tainted ministers. I understand some compromises can be made due to necessities. (Chief Minister) Pervez Khattak should know what he is doing,” the PTI leader said.
“The PTI has offered us the slots of a senior minister, a minister and deputy speaker,” revealed QWP lawmaker Gohar Nawaz Khan.
“Of course, the senior minister will be Sikandar Khan Sherpao. A minister has to be chosen from among us and the Deputy Speaker (slot vacant) is likely to be a woman (Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli),” he told The Nation.
Khan, a ministerial candidate, said that the QWP members sacked by CM Khattak, Bakhat Baidar and Ibrar Hussain, wanted to get back in the provincial cabinet to improve their credibility.
“Of course they claim they are clean, so they are pressing the party to nominate them for the ministers’ job,” Khan said.
The QWP leader said, he was elected as independent from Haripur and joined the party with the assurance that he would be made minister after 18 months. “The party quit the coalition so that could not happen. Now I am the candidate for the ministerial slot,” Khan said.
Media reports however, said Sultan Mohammed Khan, a QWP member from Charsadda, may be nominated as ministerial post.
Khan said, 95 percent of differences with the PTI have been resolved. “We will improve the working relationship as we go on,” he added.
He said, the QWP hopes to continue alliance with the PTI for the rest of the three years (government term) as coalition partners.
Khan maintained that his party has good ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and will work together as partners of the PTI.
Earlier, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan had said the JI had no reservations against QWP joining the PTI-led provincial government.
The JI leader said that his party would not oppose the QWP’s comeback as a coalition partner.
Some sources said the QWP can replace JI as PTI’s ally in the government as the PTI and the JI had developed differences during the Local Governments elections in the province.
Differences between PTI and the JI deepened after a war of words over alleged rigging. JI leaders, including Prof. Ibrahim Khan, have been alleging that the PTI used government machinery to manipulate the election results at certain polling stations in the province where JI candidates were in good position. Despite their reservations, the JI has said it does not intend to leave the coalition. But insiders in the party say its central leadership is mulling to quit the provincial coalition and join the federal government where the ruling PML-N is ready to welcome it.
PTI sources said the JI’s statements against the PTI irritated Imran Khan, who was already unhappy with the JI’s refusal to withdraw its candidate in Karachi’s by-polls in favour of PTI.
The QWP performed poorly in the LG elections, and naturally saw the offer as an opportunity.
The QWP had quit the PTI coalition in KP in November 2013 after the removal of two of its ministers from the provincial cabinet on charges of corruption.
The PTI has 56 seats in the Khyber Pukhtunkhaw Assembly, making it the single largest party. JI has 7 members, 3 of them cabinet members and QWP has 10 members in the house of 124.
PTI, QWP look for face-saving as re-alliance ‘imminent’
