K-P governor steps down

Defends decisions to launch military operation in erstwhile FATA

PESHAWAR: As the PTI inched closer to formally starting its tenure in two provinces and in the centre, the provincial governor took the cue from Sindh governor and announced to step down on Friday.

His exit had been imminent after Shah Farman was announced as the party’s potential candidate to replace him.

Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who had been sworn in as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor on March 4, 2016, picked another Friday to call time on his tenure.

After administering Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Mahmood Khan the oath of the chief minister, Jhagra left the Governor House with a guard of honour presented to him.

Before he left, though, he held a presser where he disclosed that he had sent his resignation to the President.



 

"I was never pressured to resign from my post, I decided to resign after completing my constitutional duties," Jhagra said, pointing to the swearing-in ceremony of the new chief minister.

The governor chose to highlight key moments from his tenure and defend the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). He stated that decision for launching a massive military operation, codenamed Operation Zarb-e-Azb, against militants in the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata) was a tough one but was taken in the larger interest of the nation.

The gains from that operation, Jhagra said, was the return of peace to the tribal belt where the armed forces and locals had rendered tremendous sacrifices. It was followed by an equally arduous task, first to house the people displaced from the tribal areas in different parts of the country and then to help return them to their areas.

To this end, Jhagra announced that 97 per cent of the people displaced from the tribal areas have returned to their homes.

He added that they had distributed Rs390 billion amongst 52,000 school children of the tribal areas. He informed that 149 alternate and 49 community schools were established apart from promoting some 8,000 teachers while 18,000 teachers were hired for these schools.

The governor later met with the staff of the Governor House to bid them goodbye and left with a guard of honour presented to him.



Late last month, Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair had resigned from his office in anticipation that the incoming PTI government will want to appoint their own governors.  Two days ago, Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana too had tendered his resignation.

The PTI has named its former provincial information minister Shah Farman for the slot of K-P Governor. Imran Ismail was nominated for the slot of Sindh Governor and Chaudhry Sarwar was nominated for the Punjab Governor slot.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2018.