ADIALA jail, officially known as Central Jail Rawalpindi, is a good 45-minute drive from Khyber Pakhtu­nkhwa House, which serves as an outpost of the province in the capital.

But for beleaguered KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who routinely stays here when he visits Islamabad, the meeting with his jailed party chairman after months of waiting and petitioning the Supreme Court, could not have come too soon.

For six months, he weathered a storm. Not from a weak opposition — it has lost the will to throw a political challenge anyway — but from his own party, backed by an unbridled overseas social media brigade, clamouring for his head.

He was called a ‘traitor’, ‘compromised’ and ‘establishment tout’. The noise reached such a fever pitch that some within his own cabinet began to wonder loudly about the prospects of replacing him.

It was no secret that Aleema Khan never had any liking for the KP chief minister, but it was her media interactions outside Adiala jail that not only added to Ali Amin’s political woes, but also emboldened his critics

Many in officialdom were left puzzled and wondering whether the mustachioed, long-locked strongman was indeed on his way out.

“I never felt so weak,” Gandapur narrated to his jailed party leader.

For months, he said, he was trolled for refusing the chairman’s orders not to present and pass the provincial budget, hold direct negotiations with the Afghan Taliban to put an end to militancy in the volatile province and, more crucially, refuse support for military operations and drone attacks in the tribal districts.

The sardar from Kulachi, Dera Ismail Khan, has hardly had smooth sailing as KP’s eighteenth chief minister. For the first eight months, he was required to launch one protest march after another as the party attempted to pressure the powerful military establishment to eke out concessions for his leaders.

Governance, at the time, was placed firmly on the back burner.

But his political challenges became compounded after the D-Chowk fiasco last November, and were further exacerbated by subsequent events, beginning with the abortive attempt to pass the mines and minerals bill, which the party’s social media activists claimed was being sponsored by the military establishment.

The chief minister had to relent, however, when his incarcerated leader conveyed his own opposition to the bill.

Then came the budget. Orders from Adiala said the incarcerated leader should be consulted before it is presented to the house. Efforts were made to share the draft proposals and seek his nod, but things didn’t work out.

Then came another order, ‘Don’t pass the budget’.

Barrister Saif, self-acclaimed ‘Pindi boy’ and adviser to the chief minister, was dispatched to brief the leader that passing the budget was a constitutional requirement, and failure to do so would technically knock out the government. This time, Khan sahib relented.

The unforgiving internet activists, however, trolled Gandapur again when the worsening security situation warranted a military response. The problem was further compounded by incidents involving drone attacks that resulted in civilian casualties.

All this while, the only seemingly credible voice relaying the party leader’s views on anything political was Imran’s own sister, Aleema Khan. She, along with her two other siblings, was among the few who had permission to meet Imran.

That she never had any liking for the KP chief minister was hardly a secret, but it was her media interactions outside Adiala that not only added to Ali Amin’s political woes, but also emboldened his critics.

Gandapur claimed he was being pulled down by two ladies, “one who is trying to run the party and the other who is actually running the party”, and a military establishment driven by its own exigencies.

The political storm was gathering, and the chief minister’s fate seemed to have been sealed when Imran’s frustration with him seemed to boil over, triggered by his “failure to stop” military operations in the province.

But while he claimed he never cared what the overseas social media trolls said about him, what really mattered was what Aleema Khan was saying to the media after each tete-a-tete with Imran Khan.

Being his sister, her word was treated as gospel.

“It was clear to me that our messages to Khan sahib were not being delivered. He is unaware of what is happening outside… he was not only being misled, but also whatever he said was being filtered, censored, distorted and manipulated [before being relayed].”

To add insult to injury, no rebuttal seemed to be forthcoming from the party chairman.

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With the wolves baying for blood, Gandapur’s last chance was a face-to-face with his imprisoned leader. According to the KP CM, during their meeting he laid bare what he termed “proofs” of Aleema’s manipulation to discredit him, and blatant meddling in party matters.

According to Gandapur, Mr Khan listened patiently, assured him that he still believed in his (Gandapur’s) loyalty, and that he had never asked his sister to issue any rebuke on his behalf.

“I would not have said what I said in my video message about Aleema Khan… [if not for] her media interaction… I said what I said and I can prove what I said,” the CM told me.

Fresh from the meeting with his leader, Gandapur confessed to feeling more relaxed and more relieved than he had been over the past six months or so.

He subsequently called up two of his cabinet colleagues and told them the party leader wanted them to step down. A further reshuffle of portfolios was carried out on Wednesday, as other cabinet members, mired in corruption allegations, have been either shown the door or assigned other less important portfolios.

For now, those close to CM believe he has gained the upper hand against his opponents. But the window remains very small.

“He needs to seize the opportunity and do the right thing… before the gullible party chief’s mood changes again.”

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2025