Calculated reaction: QWP retaliates, breaks off alliance with PTI in K-P

Sikandar Sherpao says PTI is trying to make his party the scapegoat.

PESHAWAR:

Barely a day after the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf sacked two of Qaumi Watan Party’s ministers from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa cabinet, QWP leader Sikandar Sherpao announced on Thursday that his party would not tolerate the insult and would now  sit on opposition benches.

Talking to journalists at his residence, Sikandar said the PTI-led government had failed to fulfil the ambitious agenda it had promised, and they were now trying to make QWP the scapegoat to deflect attention from its own failure.

By Wednesday evening, Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak had no inkling of QWP’s separation from the coalition government, according to Sikandar. Then an unexpected statement came from Imran Khan that QWP ministers were corrupt and they should be removed from the provincial government, he said.



“If our ministers were found corrupt, they should have been given a chance to clarify their positions,” Sikandar remarked.

“It’s all coming from outside of K-P by those leaders of PTI who could not win their own seats,” he added.

Sikandar claimed that QWP was announcing its separation from the K-P government to expose the Bani Gala mafia.

The provincial government had no solution for the problems faced by K-P, he alleged.

Disclosing the ‘drawbacks’ of the K-P government, he said that after the formation of government, the cabinet was not formed for a whole month. The smooth working relationship gradually eroded as PTI did not have consultations on important political issues with its allies and, at times, deliberately undermined the QWP, he added.

He also presented a communication from the PTI central secretariat. It was signed by Imran Khan and had directed Sikandar to appoint Khushal Khan as chief executive of K-P oil and gas company.

PTI rejects charges

PTI spokesperson Dr Shireen Mazari rejected the allegations levelled against PTI chief by the QWP leader. In a statement, she said that Sikandar has levelled baseless allegations against Imran.

She said QWP has resorted to personal attacks just to divert attention from their own corruption. She said that misleading allegations were made, using fake documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2013.