PESHAWAR - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamaat-e-Islami on Thursday announced amicable end to their coalition in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
However, in case of any difficulty, the JI assured to support its former coalition partner.
The decision was announced in a joint press conference of KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and former senior minister and parliamentary leader of JI in the provincial assembly, Inayatullah Khan.
Those present on the occasion included Speaker KP Assembly Asad Qaiser and KP Minister Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Ishtiaq Urmar, Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi and Spokesman of KP government Shaukat Ali Yousafzai while Habibur Rehman and Aizazul Mulk of the JI were also in attendance with their parliamentary leader.
Announcing the end of the alliance, the JI parliamentary leader in KP Assembly Inayatullah Khan said they were setting a healthy trend in democratic history of separation from a coalition government in a friendly manner.
The former senior minister said that they were not quitting the provincial government on the basis of any difference or complaint against it, but were going to join another alliance.
He said that 5 years back, both the parties had entered into alliance after signing an 11-point charter. He claimed to have achieved most of the targets. He said that both coalition partners had succeeded in bringing improvement in health and education sectors and their joint struggle had ensured the rights of the province.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that Fata will be merged into KP during the next year while local body elections in the tribal areas would be held in October. Similarly, he said that elections for KP Assembly seats in Fata would be held in March 2019.
To a question regarding ANP’s letter to KP Governor asking the chief minister to seek vote of confidence from the assembly, he said that future line of course would be decided after decision of the governor. He claimed that different political parties had assured him support. Therefore, he was still sitting in the CM House, he said.
Regarding presentation of the provincial budget, he said that negotiations with the leader of opposition in the KP Assembly and the PML-N were underway for the purpose.
He said that opposition leader and Jamaat-e-Islami had given names for the caretaker chief minister of the province. He said that the session of the provincial assembly had been postponed to prepare the provincial budget.
Meanwhile, KP CM Pervez Khattak on Thursday urged the leaders of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) to continue their dialogue with a local jirga in order to ‘resolve the situation’ at hand.
“I want to request the [leaders of] Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) to come forth and meet with the jirga — which includes the KP governor — in the next four or five days and resolve this situation,” Khattak said.
“Whatever issues they have, they should sit [with the jirga] and find a solution within [the bounds of] the Constitution. They should have this discussion so that this air of confusion in the region may be resolved,” Khattak said.
He added: “I also invite them to meet me personally, as I would like to take their issues up and resolve them. I do not think their issues are intractable and believe they can be resolved.”
“This request comes from the provincial government and from our party [PTI],” the chief minister stated.