After not being allowed to meet incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan at Adiala jail, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur lambasted the federal government, signalling that his administration will not cooperate with the Centre on the upcoming IMF programme.
“I am telling you [Centre] that the next matter yet to be decided with IMF,” said Gandapur while speaking to journalists outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail alongside Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and PTI Senator Shibli Faraz.
“We will take decisions according to our province’s situation,” he said, adding that the Centre should not give the PTI a lecture on national interests as the former ruling party was not solely bearing the responsibility.
Several PTI leaders, including CM Gandapur, Omar, Shibli, Muzamil Aslam, and Taimur Jhagra, were not permitted to meet ex-PM Khan at the jail today.
He said that they fulfilled all formalities defined by the court for meeting ex-PM Khan at the jail.
Despite this, he said the jail authorities stopped them from meeting him citing security reasons,.
The firebrand CM said that if not today, then someday they would manage to meet Khan, however, it was completely wrong to create obstacles in these meetings.
He went on to say that the former ruling party was continuously being targeted by the rulers via fake FIRs, putting its entire leadership behind bars, and the use of force when the party organised protests.
Terming it a violation of the Constitution and law, Gandapur warned that their response would be the same at the time of the next IMF programme.
The KP CM announced that they will not attend any finance-related meetings. Responding to the criticism of the KP budget, Gandapur said that they passed the budget to avoid a constitutional crisis and that a “conspiracy has failed”. He admitted that the patron-in-chief has the right to give his input before the budget.
His statement came after the PTI founder’s sister Aleema Khan termed the passing of the KP budget without the former premier’s nod “minus Imran Khan” and slammed the Gandapur administration.
The chief minister clarified that he has always made maximum efforts to implement Khan’s directives and said that he’s only answerable to the PTI founder.
The passing of the budget for the Fiscal Year 2025-26 by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government continues to have further complications as the former prime minister has now opposed the province’s surplus budget under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditions, The News reported citing sources. The sources revealed that the party’s patron-in-chief was not happy with the inclusion of Rs157 billion in surplus in the KP budget as per the IMF demands.
Adviser to the KP CM on Information Muhammad Ali Saif, confirmed to this correspondent that the former PM had raised concerns regarding the surplus budget, saying that if the province has a surplus, why would the federal government provide it with funds?
He added that Khan was not angry, but he wanted more funds to be allocated to education, health and the environment.