PTI Retains Sohail Afridi as KP Chief Minister Despite Governor Rule
Photo: File photo via Express Tribune
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has ruled out any change in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying Sohail Afridi stays as the party's chief minister with the backing of party founder Imran Khan, even though the federal government imposed governor's rule in the province on 11 October.
The party's central secretariat issued a notification on Thursday, 29 October, telling every PTI member, office bearer, parliamentarian and party worker not to hold or join any meeting about naming or replacing the chief minister. It said no proposal or agenda for a new chief minister will be put forward, and only Imran Khan has the power to nominate someone else or change the decision.
The move ends, for now, days of talk inside the party about who leads KP, talk that grew after the centre suspended the PTI provincial government under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution and after an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar issued arrest warrants for Afridi and other PTI figures in the May 9 case.
Main News Report
According to Express Tribune, reporting the PTI notification, party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said Afridi "would continue to hold the position with the support of party founder Imran Khan". The notification, shared on X, praised KP assembly members for standing by Khan and said they had stayed firm behind every decision he made.
The Telegraph India reported the same notification, noting that the federal government removed Afridi when President Asif Ali Zardari approved emergency and governor's rule on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, after tensions between the centre and the province over security and counterterrorism policy.
The notification is blunt about discipline. It directs party members not to convene or take part in meetings, introduce agendas or start talks about a nomination, a replacement or any other candidate for the chief minister's post. It adds that Imran Khan's decisions on the matter are final and binding on all party members.
Background Context
KP has been in a strange position since 11 October. On paper, the province is under governor's rule and emergency, with the federal government in charge of its administration. In the PTI's own telling, Afridi is still its chief minister, and the party has kept presenting him that way in public statements.
The same week, the blog reported that the Election Commission ordered local government polls in 17 KP districts, leaving out the 12 districts under emergency and governor's rule, including Bannu, Mohmand, Orakzai, Lakki Marwat, Tank and North Waziristan. That split shows how the emergency is already shaping politics in the province, district by district.
The KP dispute also ran through parliament this week. The blog reported that Maulana Fazlur Rehman accused the government of misusing the Constitution in the KP governor's rule and emergency, while the government side says the takeover was needed because the provincial administration failed to deal with militancy, a charge the PTI rejects.
Reactions and Statements
The PTI notification itself is the main statement, and its tone is aimed as much at the party's own ranks as at the government. By naming only Imran Khan as the person who can change the decision, it shuts down rival camps inside the party that had been trading barbs online since the governor's rule began.
Not everyone in the party is singing from the same sheet. PTI lawmaker Sher Afzal Marwat told journalists at the Peshawar High Court that it was unclear who the next chief minister would be, but that Afridi would not remain in the post, a view that now sits directly against the central secretariat's notification.
The notification also cuts across an earlier party line. The blog reported that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said KP governor's rule could end if the opposition engaged with the centre on an anti-terrorism plan, a position that assumes the centre, not the PTI, sets the terms for ending the takeover.
Separately on Thursday, an Islamabad court maintained non-bailable arrest warrants for Afridi in a PECA case over alleged statements about state institutions, and ordered that he be arrested and produced before the court on 15 November. That case, brought by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, is separate from the Peshawar May 9 case, but both add legal pressure on the man the PTI has just reaffirmed.
Why This News Matters
For readers in Pakistan, this matters because KP is caught between two claims to power. The federal government says it runs the province under governor's rule. The PTI says its chief minister is still Afridi. Until that clash is settled in law or in politics, every decision in KP, from security to local polls, will be read through it.
- What changed: nothing on paper, the PTI has confirmed Afridi, not replaced him.
- What did not change: governor's rule and emergency, imposed 11 October, remain in place.
- Who decides next: only Imran Khan, according to the PTI notification, not any party meeting.
- Legal pressure: arrest warrants stand in both the Peshawar May 9 case and the Islamabad PECA case.
- What to watch: whether the centre treats Afridi as a former chief minister or as a political rival still claiming office.
The plain point is this: the PTI has chosen unity behind one name over an open contest for the post, and it has done so at a moment when the courts and the centre are both moving against that name.
Future Developments
Three dates and steps matter next. First, 4 November, when the Peshawar anti-terrorism court next hears the May 9 case in which Afridi is now nominated as an accused. Second, 15 November, when the Islamabad court wants Afridi produced in the PECA case. Third, the election programme for the 17 KP districts where the ECP has ordered local polls, which will show how far the centre is willing to let normal politics run in the province while governor's rule lasts.
Inside the party, the test is whether the ban on discussing a replacement holds. If PTI leaders stop the public speculation, the notification will have done its job. If the debate carries on, the party will face the same split it tried to close on Thursday. Either way, KP politics will stay at the centre of the national argument, and the blog will follow the court dates and the ECP programme as they come.
Sources
Dunya News: PTI bars members from discussing change of KP CM Sohail Afridi
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