Peshawar, Pakistan: Allegiance for the paramount Leader is the foremost requirement to survive in cults and cartels while cult and cartel have their moralities that usually defy the traditional morality of their society. A murderer, a rapist, a criminal, and a felonious personality can rise to the top in any cult if he/she has blind faith in Cult Leader because norms of traditional ethics have nothing to do with Cult formation.
On October 27, 2017, a group of men stripped a 16-year-old girl naked and forcefully made her walk for an hour in Ghara Matt Village of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan District when she was returning home. Later the accused were apprehended but the then Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) lawmaker in the National Assembly Dawar Khan Kundi alleged that people involved in an assault on the girl of the area were being protected and supported by Ali Amin Gandapur.
The incident got the attention when information appeared on social media and the local police showed reluctance following the incident to file the case. The girl was taken to the police station multiple times before a case was eventually filed but the case was registered against the culprit after registering a case against the girl’s family because Ali Amin Gandapur was allegedly behind saving the culprits. The then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak after facing the embarrassment due to social media news ordered Inspector-General KP Salahuddin Masood to take the culprits to task. The IG also met the chief minister and briefed him on the matter. It is claimed by police investigators that the IGP informed the then CM that Amin Gandapur was behind protecting culprits.
Ali Amin Gandapur is known for his allegiance to the former prime minister and former Chairman of PTI Imran Khan and he played a pivotal role in planning the May 9 attacks on military installations including on the monuments of martyrs. His audio calls were leaked while planning to send criminals to Islamabad and also to create law and order situations. He had never denied the credibility of his leaked audio calls.
Imran Khan as a prize has decided on Gandapur’s name for his appointment as Chief Minister of KPK knowingly Gandapur had allegedly been involved in criminal activities and he sent Afghanis to attack military installations. This move of Imran Khan shows that he has not changed his strategy of attacking state institutions and prizing everybody who was directly involved in attacking the Armed forces.
Moreover, it also indicates that Imran Khan is installing a strong-headed man with having criminal history in the sensitive province of KPK because he (Imran Khan) wants to keep putting pressure on the military and has not withdrawn from his policy of instigating the military. According to local media of Peshawar sane elements within PTI are shocked over this decision of Imran Khan. PTI old guards who understand the gravity of the situation are of the view that the nomination of Ali Amin Gandapur, the main accused of May 9, as the Chief Minister, despite having the best options for the Chief Minister clearly explains PTI’s future political strategy of continuing the politics of confrontation with state institutions.
It is not understood that PTI is hinting at a collision course between the Federation and KPK instead of reconciliation as the party has decided not to hold talks with any mainstream party.
Everybody in Peshawar understands that Ali Amin Gandapur will run the politics of conflict and humiliation from a province where the war against terrorism is ongoing, the problems of the newly merged districts are unresolved, the return of illegal Afghans needs more time and action against illegal economic activities must be followed without pause. Moreover, serious situations are going on in Afghanistan, and in these circumstances, the nomination of a person with a very frivolous, controversial background, having linkages with terrorists sitting in Afghanistan whose competence is not hidden from anyone, as the Chief Minister only means to raise the political temperature, the politics of excitement and confrontation. It is very clear that even in the coming time, PTI will continue on the politics of conflict, and protest instead of reconciliation, which will be based on KPK province.
Here a serious question arises that those people who had high hopes for Imran Khan’s return must think that nothing has changed in PTI and Imran Khan’s thinking and style of politics and another Usman Buzdar Plus has been imposed upon sane and honest elements of PTI in KPK.
PTI’s former provincial ministers with the condition of maintaining anonymity while talking to DND News Agency said that Imran Khan must change his behavior otherwise the party (PTI) would become a bunch of those who have shown hate against the state institutions and this would not benefit the party. They were of the view that the country most needs political and economic stability, political vision, and reconciliation while characters like Amin Gandapur are known for their hatred against state institutions.
“This situation in KPK explains that Imran Khan has not changed his policy of confrontation and would surely harm the country as he did during his 42-month rule and after coming out of power. It is also a fact that the state has learned nothing from the history. Remember the golden words of Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa who said in the first week of January 2024 while hearing the lifetime disqualification case “those who made the country hostage are again contesting the election”. If his words could be respected, people like Amin Gandapur could have never been in assemblies and could never reach positions like Chief Minister of a province”, commented a senior journalist while talking to DND News Agency with the condition of respecting his anonymity.
The overall political scenario also suggests that Imran Khan did not mention any kind of reconciliation or negotiation process even in media talks and he can call protests anytime in the country as he had been doing in the past and would love to bring the people on the roads because his entire narrative against the state is based on the politics of confrontation.
