PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali on Friday accepted the resignations of 14 provincial caretaker ministers and 11 aides to the chief ministers, including six special assistants and five advisers.

The administration department de-notified them all shortly thereafter.

The governor accepted the resignations of the caretaker cabinet’s members, according to two notifications issued by the administration department.

The resignations were accepted after the caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan sent two summaries to the governor with one carrying the names of ministers and other those of the advisers and special assistants.

CM had asked cabinet members to resign over their ‘political affiliations’

The administration department sent the first summary to the chief minister on Thursday (August 10) requesting him to advise the governor to accept the resignations of 14 ministers under the Constitution’s Article 132(3) read with Article 105 (1).

The chief minister later advised the governor to accept the resignations. The governor acted accordingly.

Another summary was moved the same day by the administration department requesting the chief minister to advise the governor to accept the resignations of his six special assistants and five advisers. The summary was sent to the governor on August 10 and was approved by him on Friday.

The resignations were tendered by the caretaker minister, advisers and special assistants on Thursday over a cup of tea after Chief Minister Azam Khan asked them to do so “voluntarily”. The chief minister warned them that if they didn’t resign, they would be de-notified.

Sources claimed that Mr Khan sought the resignations of the cabinet members over the “involvement in politics” as the Election Commission of Pakistan had already asked him to remove all his ministers and aides, who were involved in politics.

They insisted that the decision to introduce a new caretaker setup in the province was taken in view of the political affiliations of most ministers and CM aides.

Sources claimed that a few cabinet members told the CM that they were not involved in politics and that time should be given to them for submitting resignations, but 19 ministers and aides handed over their resignations to him without more ado.

A letter written by the ECP to the CM on July 31 reads, “The ECP has desired to request you while keeping the interim cabinet members at minimum to review the appointments [in light of the criteria as laid down in the election laws] and to de-notify such ministers, advisers and special assistants involved in politics immediately so that free, fair and transparent elections are ensured for future.”

In a statement issued here, Awami National Party provincial president Aimal Wali Khan welcomed the resignations of the cabinet members.

He said KP was handed over to the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl through the caretaker government.

Mr Khan called for the exit of the chief minister and the governor from their respective offices.

“We hope that the governor and chief minister, too, will be asked to resign as both are the nominees of the JUI-F,” he said.

The ANP leader said it was the job of the ECP to provide a level-playing field to all political parties for elections.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2023