PESHAWAR: As formation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet awaits Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf founder Imran Khan’s nod, the party’s provincial chapter has insisted that members of the previous cabinet with “corruption allegations and bad reputation” should not be part of the new one.

Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi has taken oath on October 15 but since then the provincial government has been functioning without cabinet.

He has said time and again that he would announce names of his team members with the consultation of Imran Khan.

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On the second day of his oath-taking, Mr Afridi rushed to Adiala Jail to meet his incarcerated ‘boss’ and take instructions from him about future line of action but he was not allowed to meet him.

Provincial govt working without cabinet since Oct 15; participants of a recent party meeting say protest march on Islamabad to be ‘last option’ for Imran’s release

Sources in PTI told this scribe that some leaders of the party told Mr Afridi during a recent meeting that ‘corrupt’ ministers and ‘people with bad reputation’ should be kept away from the new cabinet.

The meeting was also attended by PTI provincial president MNA Junaid Akbar Khan, general secretary Ali Asghar, central leader and former speaker of National Assembly Asad Qaiser, MNAs Atif Khan and Shahram Tarakai and former finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra.

Sources said that during the meeting, it was discussed that fair people should be inducted in the new cabinet.

It is pertinent to mention here that making frequent changes in the previous cabinets of the PTI governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained its hallmark.

Recently ministers for elementary and secondary education department and public health engineering department resigned from Ali Amin Gandapur’s team while the ministers of several other departments were reshuffled.

Besides formation of new cabinet, sources said, the release of Imran Khan from jail and volatile law and order situation were also discussed in the meeting.

They said that the new chief minister and party leadership discussed in detail how to resolve the issue of law and order situation and bring peace in the province.

They said that they discussed in detail prospects about the release of Imran Khan. When asked whether PTI would march on Islamabad by the end of November, sources said that the date was not decided yet.

They said that protest march on Islamabad would be the last option with PTI and before the march, the party would take other steps for the release of Imran Khan.

Sources said that election of Sohail Afridi as chief minister was an indication to deal things with the federal government and powers that be with aggression. They said that all organisations of PTI were fully supporting their new chief minister.

In another development which took place on Sunday, PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar Khan directed general secretary Ali Asghar to issue show-cause notices to district presidents for not holding protest demonstrations against the alleged killing of workers of Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan. PTI founder Imran Khan had given the call to stage protest demonstrations at district level on Friday last.

Sources said that most of the district organisations of PTI staged protests while reportedly several of them did not obey the directives of Imran Khan.

A senior PTI leader told Dawn that strict action should be taken against such district presidents because holding demonstrations was not a big task rather the protest was peaceful and there were no probabilities of registration of FIRs and any other action against them by police or government.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025