Governor absent as KP awaits oath for New CM: Salman Akram Raja

PESHAWAR: Prominent lawyer and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Salman Akram Raja said that the Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is not present in the province to administer the oath to the newly elected Chief Minister, Sohail Afridi, ARY News reported.

“The province cannot be left without a government,” he emphasized while addressing the court.

Salman Akram Raja said the Chief Minister’s office is a constitutional position and under the Constitution, if the Governor refuses or is unavailable, the Chief Justice can nominate someone to administer the oath.

“The Governor is currently out of the province. The new Chief Minister, Sohail Afridi, was elected at 12 p.m., and it’s already 5:30 p.m., yet no oath has been administered,” he said, adding that the Governor has informed that he will return in two days, but the province cannot remain without a Chief Minister for 48 hours.

He further stated that outgoing Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had announced his resignation during his address to the provincial assembly.

Additional Attorney General told the court that until the new Chief Minister takes oath, the outgoing Chief Minister can continue performing official duties. Raja countered that such a provision applies only in cases of a no-confidence motion.

Chief Justice S.M. Atiq Shah directed the Additional Attorney General to confirm from the Governor House whether the summary regarding the oath-taking had been received or not.

“Seek the Governor’s opinion and inform the court,” the Chief Justice instructed, adjourning the hearing until tomorrow.

Also Read: PTI’s Sohail Afridi elected new Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Earlier, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly elected the PTI’s nominee Sohail Afridi as the new leader of the house after Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur’s resignation.

The house elected Sohail Afridi, an MPA from Khyber region, with 90 votes as the new Chief Minister of the province.

A PTI member, Asif Mehsud, could not participate in voting owing to being out of the country.

The opposition parties boycotted the vote after Governor Faisal Karim Kundi objected over the resignation of Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.

According to reports, a letter from the Governor has been received by Gandapur.

The Governor’s House received two purported resignation letters from the Chief Minister, “with signatures on both documents found to be different and inconsistent”.