Gandapur may be next K-P CM

The PTI has secured the required majority in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to form its government for the third consecutive time in the province with the party’s provincial president, Ali Amin Gandapur, likely to be the chief minister -- the third from Dera Ismail Khan.

The PTI-affiliated independent candidates clinched National Assembly and provincial legislature seats in several districts of K-P in the general elections held a day earlier.

They have managed to win all the seats in Chitral, Abbottabad, Swat, Charsadda, Swabi, Nowshera, Mohmand, Khyber, Mardan, and Bannu.

According to the results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the PTI-nominated candidates have secured all the seats from PK-1 Chitral to PK-15 Lower Dir.

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In the 145-member K-P Assembly, 73 seats are required to form the government while the PTI-backed candidates have already bagged 76 slots in the provincial legislature, according to the results issued by the ECP.

This means that the PTI has obtained a simple majority and come into a position to form a government on its own in the province, not requiring the seats of other parties.

The PTI formed its government in K-P for the first time in 2013 with Pervez Khattak as the chief minister.

The second time the party formed its government in K-P was in 2018 with Mahmood Khan as the provincial chief executive.

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This is the third time that the PTI will form its government in the province, completing a hat-trick.

The PTI’s K-P president, Ali Amin Gandapur, is likely to become the chief minister of the province.

Before him, Mufti Mehmood and Sardar Inayatullah Khan Gandapur -- both from Dera Ismail Khan -- have served as the chief executive of the province.

Sardar Ali Amin Gandapur was a provincial minister in the first term of the PTI in K-P. He went on to become a federal minister during its tenure in the Centre.

However, as the PTI-nominated candidates contested the polls independently, the party will not receive any reserved seats for women and minorities.

Despite forming the government, Article 63A of the Constitution that deals with disqualification on grounds of defection will not apply to its members – meaning they can leave the party any time they want.

Apart from this, they will also not be sanctioned for violating the party