Three JI ministers in KP likely to resign after MMA meeting on May 2

PESHAWAR: Three ministers of the Jamat-e-Islami in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet are to resign from offices during the current week, forcing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to appoint one of its lawmaker as finance minister for presenting the next year's budget.The JI, which is the junior coalition partner in the KP government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has three ministers in the cabinet. Inayatullah Khan is senior minister for Local Government Muzaffar Said is the minister for Finance while Habibur Rahman is minister for Zakat, Ushr and Religious Affairs.Muzaffar Said was supposed to present the provincial budget for being finance minister. However, PTI will have to appoint another member of the KP Assembly to present the budget for 2018-19 as JI ministers are expect to quit the cabinet in a few days."Our ministers are waiting till a meeting of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on May 2. However, this is for sure that our cabinet members, including Finance Minister Muzaffar Said would quit before the presentation of the budget," Jamat Ali Shah, provincial information secretary of the JI, told The News. JI announced ending five-year long political alliance with the PTI on Wednesday and announced to quit the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government within a week.The decision has come only a month before the end of the five-year tenure of the provincial government. The provincial amir of the JI, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, made the announcement, saying the party was to enter political alliance with the religious parties of the country under the banner of MMA.Despite being in the coalition government in KP, both the JI and PTI fielded candidates against each other in the local bodies across the province as well as in almost all the by-elections held in KP and other parts of the country.The PTI refused to support the JI candidate for a general seat in Senate last month. Later, the party had to ink agreement with opposition parties to manage a berth in the Upper House for its provincial chief.The JI along with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam of Maulana Fazlur Rahman and other religio-political parties hope the MMA will give a tough time to the mainstream political parties in the coming polls.The MMA ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for five years after the religious alliance won a majority in the provincial assembly in the 2002 general election. The JUI-F was the major coalition partner, with having the top slot of the chief minister and important cabinet members.The JI was given the slot of speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly while the incumbent party chief, Senator Sirajul Haq, was made senior minister in the provincial cabinet. Siraj later quit the cabinet to focus on his responsibilities as provincial amir of his party.

from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2HASRVy