Bureaucratic upheaval expected in K-P

With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed independents securing a majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), and the party, which is now associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), assuming power for the third consecutive term in the province, significant changes in key bureaucratic positions are expected.

In this regard, Member National Assembly (MNA), Sher Afzal Marwat, a senior leader of the PTI, recently told journalists that discussions had taken place with the party’s founding Chairman, Imran Khan, who advocated for a change in key bureaucrats of the province and a change in leadership of the provincial police force.

After Marwat’s presser, demands for the transfer of high-ranking police officials, including the Inspector General (IG) of K-P, Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, have intensified within the PTI ranks, which includes former ministers Taimur Jhagra and Kamran Bangash, who want an overhaul of the administrative setup of the province and the provincial capital, Peshawar. Speaking to the Express Tribune, former information minister, Bangash, said that the election was rigged with the connivance of Deputy Commissioner Peshawar and his team.

“Therefore, until these government officials are transferred, PTI’s protest will continue.” It is also pertinent to mention that recently K-P’s Chief Minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, met with the Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, to discuss the transfer of the provincial police chief and other top bureaucrats.

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Sources privy to the developments informed the Express Tribune that after the meeting the K-P government requested that Shahab Ali Shah, who served as the Additional Chief Secretary during former chief minister Mehmood Khan’s tenure, be appointed as the Chief Secretary of the province. While it remains to be seen whether Shah will be posted as Chief Secretary; amidst these calls for a complete upheaval, concerns regarding the lack of prioritisation of governance issues by the new government have increased.

For instance, Ahmed Kundi, the Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the K-P Assembly, was of the view that if the incumbent government engages in a scuffle with the federation over transfers, then there would be no time for governance.

“The government needs to address fundamental challenges facing the province, such as the demand from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reassess provincial shares and the recent controversial appointment in the Indus River System Authority,” emphasised Kundi. Similarly, Dr Ibadullah, the Opposition Leader in the K-P Assembly, highlighted a disconnect between the PTI's current rhetoric and its previous acclaim of the province's police force.

"In the elections of 2013 and 2018, Tehreek-e-Insaf praised K-P police as exemplary police everywhere, in every street, in every meeting. Imran Khan himself kept singing the praises of the K-P police in the 2018 rallies, but how did the police, which was apparently so good in the province for 10 years, deteriorate in 10 months?" Dr Ibadullah questioned.“The answer is that the PTI has ruined the bureaucracy in the province. Therefore, the PTI should now focus on issues of the province, rather than making demands,” suggested Dr Ibadullah while talking to the Express Tribune.