PESHAWAR: The combined opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is set to withdraw its no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Wednesday as part of a broader strategy to do the necessary spadework for a fresh bid to topple the PTI-led coalition government in the province, an opposition leader said.

He said the no-confidence motion against Mr Khattak would be withdrawn to gain time and space for thorough homework to launch a fresh bid against the tripartite coalition government.

“We are withdrawing the no-confidence motion,” Qaumi Watan Party leader Sikandar Sherpao told Dawn.

The combined opposition in the KP assembly had moved the motion against Mr Khattak in April to forestall a possible move by the PTI leadership to dissolve the provincial legislature. The move, claimed some opposition leaders at the time, had been initiated on the direct request of the KP chief minister to save his government as well as the KP assembly.

Mr Khattak had made it clear so many times that he would not oblige the party leadership with dissolution of his government or of the KP assembly, thus stopping PTI chairman Imran Khan from taking the ultimate decision.

Opposition leaders say the decision to prepare a proper strategy for the removal of the PTI-JI-AJI government had been taken following a nod from the PML-N leadership which after initial reluctance had finally given the go-ahead to JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to explore the possibility.

The decision came following meetings between Fazlur Rehman and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The JUI-F leader later met QWP leader Aftab Sherpao in Islamabad to discuss the proposition.

One opposition leader in the know of latest political development said the PML-N leadership might surprise the KP chief minister in the next couple of days with a move that could put him in an awkward situation vis-a-vis the federal government and the leadership of his own party.

“This would be the beginning of the shaping up of environment for moving a no-confidence against the chief minister,” the opposition leader said.

He said the opposition also planned to field its own candidate, PPP’s Muhammad Ali Shah, against the treasury benches’ candidate for the slot of the deputy speaker in KP assembly. “Even if we don’t win the slot, we want to give PTI a run for money,” the leader said.

The ANP, he said, had already agreed to Muhammad Ali Shah’s candidature. “We may not win but this would be our first bid to test the waters for the no-confidence,” the leader said.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014