PESHAWAR: Ali Amin Khan Gandapur took oath as the elected chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday.

Governor Ghulam Ali administered the oath to him at the Governor’s House here.

Speaker of the provincial assembly Babar Saleem Swati, Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi, MNAs and MPAs, Peshawar mayor Zubair Ali, chief secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, police chief Akhtar Hayat Khan, Peshawar’s commissioner and administrative secretaries also attended the ceremony.

The PTI workers were also in attendance there in large numbers.

Gandapur, a PTI-backed independent lawmaker, was elected the chief minister by securing 90 votes against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s nominee Dr Ibadullah, a joint candidate of the opposition parties, including Awami National Party and Pakistan Peoples Party, in the assembly sitting on Friday.

Born in Dera Ismail Khan district in 1978 as the youngest son of Major Aminullah Khan Gandapur, a

former revenue minister, the 45-year-old CM attended St. Helen’s School in his hometown and did matriculation from the Police Public School, Peshawar.

After matriculation, he went to the Government College, Lahore, for further studies and later studied at the National College of Arts and the Pakistan School of Fashion Design, Lahore.

He was a junior squash national champion, an expert horse rider and a national tent-pegging champion.

Mr Gandapur started active politics along with PTI founder Imran Khan in 2007. He was elected the PTI’s regional president for southern regions of KP in 2012-13 and the MPA in the 2013 general elections.

In 2018, he was elected MNA and became the federal minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Mr Gandapur was later elevated as the PTI’s president for KP.

In the Feb 2024 general elections, he won both national and provincial assembly seats from his area but retained the PA seat after nomination by the party as the chief minister.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2024