The PTI’s Sohail Afridi and three other opposition candidates on Sunday submitted their nomination papers to contest the chief minister election scheduled to be held during a session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly tomorrow, according to the assembly’s secretary.

Afridi, a member of the provincial assembly hailing from Bara, was nominated for the office by party founder Imran Khan after outgoing KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced his resignation earlier this week. This has prompted an election to decide KP’s next chief executive.

Secretary Syed Muhammad Mahir told reporters that Afridi’s papers, as well as those of the three opposition candidates — contesting on behalf of the PPP, PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) — have been received and approved.

“The nomination papers of the PTI’s Sohail Afridi have been approved,” he said. “The papers of Arbab Zarq of the People’s Party, Sardar Jahan of the PML-N and Maulana Lutfur Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F have also been approved for the Chief Minister’s post.”

A video shared by the PTI on X showed Afridi signing documents, with the caption reading that he has submitted his papers to contest the CM elections.

When asked by a Dawn.com correspondent about federal ministers’ allegations that he was in contact with proscribed organisations, Afridi told Dawn.com that the Centre has “declared we are all banned groups, we are all terrorists and they have filed all of the FIRs (first information reports) against us”.

PTI holds meetings

The PTI’s president in KP and MNA, Junaid Akbar, earlier posted on X that a consultative session was held at in the chambers of the provincial assembly’s speaker today, ahead of the scheduled CM election.

Afridi was among the attendees of the meeting, during which electoral stages, preparations for Monday’s assembly session and the matter of contacting other assembly members were discussed, Akbar said.

In a separate post, he said nine MPAs supporting the PTI who were abroad had returned to Pakistan. “All of our 92 MPAs are in Pakistan and in contact with us,” Akbar said, adding that Afridi would win the election with a two-third majority.

A candidate needs to secure at least 73 votes in the 145-strong KP Assembly to win the CM election.

Later, Akbar posted that a PTI delegation had met KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi at his residence in Islamabad. “We told him that we hoped he would not become a part of any unconstitutional, undemocratic and illegal process,” he posted on X, adding that the delegation also said that any unconstitutional process would be “very dangerous” for the province, peace and democracy.

Earlier, a delegation of candidates called on the Awami National Party (ANP) at their Bacha Khan Markaz headquarters in Peshawar.

The delegation was led by PTI Provincial President Junaid Akbar Khan and comprised Sher Ali Arbab, Ali Khan Jadoon, Shaukat Yousafzai, Malik Adeel Iqbal, Irfan Saleem and other leaders, according to PTI Deputy Information Secretary and social media head Ikram Katahna, who was also part of the delegation.

“A democratic process is going to take place tomorrow, for which we are contacting democratic people,” Junaid said. “The PTI has a numerical majority in KP. We want to elect Sohail Afridi unopposed to stop undemocratic characters.”

ANP KP President Mian Iftikhar Hussain, in response, said that the party would “not be a part of any unconstitutional and undemocratic process” and that it would speak with their leadership after consultations.

The PTI delegation also met Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam today, with Junaid stating that the delegation had come in the hope of making a joint decision “like in the past”, according to Katahna.

“We have to come together to solve the problems the country is going through,” Junaid said. “The PTI has a clear majority in the assembly, and KP cannot afford further issues or political instability at this time. We want to elect Sohail Afridi unopposed.”

Muqam replied that he would consult federal leadership “as per the traditions of the province” and inform the delegation after his talks.

Gandapur steps down

Outgoing CM Gandapur resigned his seat on party founder Imran’s directive earlier this week.

PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Wednesday confirmed Gandapur’s resignation during a media briefing, stating that the decision was made by Imran.

He had pointed out that the PTI had a “clear majority” in the KP Assembly through which Afridi would be elected as the next chief minister.

Raja also quoted Imran as raising concerns over the spike in terrorism in PTI-ruled KP.

“Khan sahib is very sad, the incident that happened in Orakzai, Khan sahib said there is no choice for him now, but to make the change [in KP CM],” he had said.

However, Gandapur’s resignation letter, which was shared with the media, had apparently gotten lost in red tape, with the Governor’s house initially denying ever receiving it.

Officials at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat had told Dawn that the letter had been delivered to the Governor’s House on Wednesday night. A copy of the letter seen by Dawn showed that it was received by the governor’s staff at 10:57pm.

However, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi — who was in Islamabad on Thursday — and other officials at the Governor’s Secre­tariat remained tight-lipped about the issue.

An official on Kundi’s staff had told Dawn that they had yet to receive the resignation letter. “As far as I know, the resignation has not yet reached the Governor’s Office,” the official had said, adding that the governor would sign it whenever he received it.

Subsequently, Gandapur sent another hand-written resignation letter to the governor and Kundi confirmed on Saturday the receipt of the letter in a post on X.

“Today at 2:30pm, the handwritten resignation advice of the CM Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was duly received and acknowledged by Governor House,” he wrote. “After thorough scrutiny and legal formalities as per the constitution [and] relevant laws, subject resignation will be processed in due course of time,” he added.

Meanwhile, Salman Akram Raja held a press conference explaining that under Article 130(8) (the chief minister may, by writing under his hand addressed to the president, resign his office) of the Constitution, a chief minister can resign from office and does not require the acceptance or approval of the governor.

He also said that Afridi “will be the first CM to hail from the tribal areas” and said: “This province will progress greatly under his leadership. We hope for an end to bloodshed through diplomacy, so we can eradicate terrorism in the region.”