PESHAWAR: After finalising most of the power-sharing terms with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the Qaumi Watan Party is likely to join the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government after Eidul Fitr.

However, it is yet to be decided if QWP’s former minister Bakht Baidar Khan will withdraw his damages suit against PTI chief Imran Khan.

The case is being heard by a Peshawar court.

“It is my personal case because Imran Khan had falsely accused me of being involved in corruption and therefore, I exercised my legal right to sue him in the court of law,” Bakht Baidar told Dawn on Saturday.

The MPA said he was a member of the QWP and was supposed to abide by the party decisions but hitherto, no one had spoken to him on the matter.

“I have been in my village for many days, so I’m unaware of new political developments (in Peshawar). Though my damages suit is before the court for decision, everything is possible in the larger interest of the province and its people,” he said.

Bakht Baidar said personally speaking, he didn’t favour the presence of the Jamaat-i-Islami in the government.

A QWP source said the agreement had been finalised and the party would join the provincial government within a week.

“Several meetings have taken place over the last few weeks. PTI leaders have always responded very positively,” he said.

The source said the QWP eyed the office of the provincial assembly’s deputy speaker, and portfolios of senior minister and energy and power.

He said keeping the past experience in mind, the QWP leadership was quite careful about taking decisions on the basis of written agreements so that the alliance remain intact in future.

“Both PTI and QWP want to have sustainable alliance against the opposition’s tripartite alliance in the province,” he said.

Though portfolios for the coming QWP ministers have yet to be finalised, the source said it was not an issue at all to cause delay in the party rejoining the ruling coalition.

The QWP has already empowered its central chairman, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, to decide about the matter in the larger interests of the party and people of the province.

QWP parliamentary leader Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao couldn’t be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

When contacted, former minister Shaukat Yousafzai, who is the PTI’s provincial information secretary, said his party and QWP respected each other and that the latter would again be part of the ruling coalition soon.

When asked if Jamaat-i-Islami or Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan ministers would feel uneasy after the re-entry of the QWP to the government, he said the development would make no difference for the two partners of the ruling coalition.

About differences between JI and PTI leaders over the recent local government elections, Yousafzai said the PTI had not taken any notice of the JI statements as those commenting on the matter from Jamaat were not part of the government and that individually, everyone had the right to express views.

He said the JI and the AJI were the PTI partners in the province and that they too had welcomed the QWP rejoining the government.

“The QWP has set no condition for rejoining the government. The issues pertaining to portfolios are very minor and can be resolved anytime because both parties eagerly want to work together,” he said.

The PTI leader said portfolios were not a matter of ego for the PTI and that the QWP would certainly rejoin the government after Eidul Fitr.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2015

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