PESHAWAR: The NAP-JUI coalition party today [April 24] renewed the demand for immediate transfer of power to the majority parties in the NWFP and Baluchistan, and called upon the President to forthwith entrust Maulana Mufti Mahmud with forming a government in the NWFP. After a meeting of the NAP-JUI coalition … at which 23 participating MPAs of the NWFP made the demand unanimously, the coalition party leader Maulana Mufti Mahmud said they have been assured of complete support by six or seven more MPAs. Today’s meeting, Mufti Mahmud said, again “amply demonstrated our clear-cut majority in the Provincial Assembly”. … He declined, however, to name the MPAs … who were expected to join the coalition. The NAP-JUI leader reiterated that after such an “unequivocal display of the coalition’s strength, the Government should immediately call the coalition to form Ministry in the province.” … In reply to a question, he said that in the absence of the Provincial Governor, the President could himself administer the oath of office to the head of the provincial cabinet. … The Mufti expressed surprise that … the agenda of the Assembly had not been made available even to the majority party.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2022