Opposition parties to field joint candidate for KP CM election

• Voting for KP chief minister scheduled for tomorrow.
• PML-N, JUI-F yet to agree on consensus nominee.
• JUI-F mulls Durrani, Lutfur Rehman; PML-N backs Ibadullah.
  

Opposition parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have decided to field a joint candidate for the chief minister’s post with the process for submitting nomination papers underway, the sources said on Sunday.

Consultations between the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are ongoing, though consensus on a single nominee has yet to be reached, sources added. 

Insiders say that the JUI-F is considering Akram Khan Durrani and Maulana Lutfur Rehman as potential candidates, while the PML-N is expected to nominate Dr Ibadullah Khan.

Speaking to Brackly News, JUI-F provincial chief Maulana Atta-ur-Rehman confirmed that opposition parties would field their own candidate, calling the submission of nomination papers a “constitutional and legal right”. 

He added that the consultation process was still underway to agree on a joint candidate.

Meanwhile, the KP Assembly secretariat has said nomination papers for the election of the new chief minister will be submitted by 3pm today. The scrutiny process will be completed by 4pm, while voting for the election is scheduled to take place tomorrow (Monday).

The KP Assembly is set to elect the new Leader of the House on October 13 (Monday), as KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi confirmed receiving CM Ali Amin Gandapur’s resignation.

Babar Saleem Swati, the speaker of KP Assembly, shared the schedule via a post on X, announcing that the election for the new CM will take place at 10am on Monday, October 13.

Gandapur, a firebrand PTI leader, stepped down from the post of KP CM on October 8, hours after party leaders announced Afridi’s nomination for the post.

“In respectful compliance of the orders of my leader, and founding PTI chairman, Imran Khan, it is my honour to tender my resignation from the Office of the Chief Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he wrote in a post on X at the time.