Pervez Khattak’s brother removed from the KP cabinet after PK-63 defeat
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has removed Liaquat Khattak, brother of defence minister Pervez Khattak from the provincial cabinet for violating the party discipline.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman on Saturday de-notified Liaqat Khattak as provincial minister from his office.
According to the notification, said that KP Governor exercising power under Clause 3 of Article 132 of the Constitution has de-notified Liaqat Khattak, brother of defence minister Pervez Khattak, from his office.
This move was taken as PTI suffered a huge upset in the Nowshera election.
PK-63 Nowshera-III, PML-N’s Ikhtaiar Wali defeated PTI candidate Omar Kakakhel with a margin of over 4,000 votes, as per unofficial results.
The PML-N candidate was backed by all the parties of the PDM except the Awami National Party (ANP).
This comes as Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak’s brother Liaquat Khattak wanted his son to be nominated as the PTI’s candidate for the recently-held Nowshera elections.
Liaquat wanted his son, Ahad Khattak, to be given the party ticket for the Nowshera by-elections but his elder brother and former KP chief minister Pervaiz Khattak opposed the move. The defence minister was of the view that the party’s candidate for the by-elections should be Mian Omar, the son of Jamshed Ud Din Kakakhel who passed away due to the coronavirus last year in June.
According to the reports, the defence minister was of the view that the Jamshed Ud Din family had the right to the seat till 2023.
Meanwhile, Liaquat Khattak’s son Ahad campaigned for the PML-N candidate by uniting various factions of the PTI under a united platform.
Ahad Khattak, who had previously served as Nowshera tehsil’s Nazim, was backed up by a large number of Nazims and councillors from the area.
Kamran Khan Bangash, Spokesman for the provincial government said that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had sought a report regarding Liaqat’s support to the PML-N in the PK-63 by-polls. The report stated that Liaqat and his family had campaigned against the PTI candidate.
He further added that Prime Minister Imran Khan was consulted on the matter and after his approval, Liaqat was removed from the provincial cabinet.
Already, many of Pervaiz Khattak’s relatives have been elected on PTI’s ticket.
