PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Thursday announced to terminate their coalition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ‘in a mutually agreed decision’.
“Today is a historic day. By parting ways on a friendly note, we have established a good political tradition,” said JI leader and KP Local Government Minister Inayatullah Khan at a joint press conference with Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak in Peshawar.
Inayatullah and Muzafar Said, who served as provincial finance minister, also announced to resign from their ministerial posts following party’s decision to part ways with the PTI-led coalition government.
The JI leader, however, assured that his party will support CM Khattak both in and outside the assembly till the last day of the government. The party had announced last week that they would be going their separate way after the restoration of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).
Inayatullah claimed that the JI had become a part of the PTI-led coalition in line with the 11-point agenda, which he said had been implemented. He said the MMA was in its preliminary stages and its organisation was yet incomplete. He added that they were parting ways with each other, according to the arrangements agreed upon for the general elections.
He said that they intended to promote a culture of cooperation and appreciation in politics rather than that of accusations and criticism. He added that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and JI were different parties with different manifestos, but were joining each other in the MMA according to an agreement.
The chief minister, on the other hand, said that due to the support of JI, his government succeeded in getting the most from the federal government. When asked to justify the reason to keep the office after losing the support of the majority in the provincial assembly, Khattak replied that leaders of a number of opposition parties did not oppose him staying as the chief minister.
He also informed that the assembly session summoned for Thursday was postponed till May 14 with the consent of the opposition. He was, however, found unsure when questioned if a final session of the assembly will take place or not.
The chief minister announced that all the political parties had agreed on the merger of Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the next calendar year. In this connection, he said that elections for provincial assembly seats in FATA will be held in March or April next year. He added that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi has already announced the holding of local government elections throughout FATA in coming October.
Published in Daily Times, May 4th 2018.