PTI Has No Real Existence Anymore, Leadership Should Adopt the Path of Dialogue, Asserts Former KP CM Mahmood Khan
ISLAMABAD: Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Mahmood Khan has declared that the PTI as it existed earlier is virtually nonexistent and the party’s current leadership must stop street agitation and adopt the route of productive dialogue.
During an extensive interview, Mahmood Khan told that court cases will only lead to endless adjournments, and negotiations should be made the top priority at all times by the leadership of the PTI. Speaking in advance of planned protests scheduled for Sept. 27, he said holding protests to push for the release of Imran Khan would not achieve that goal, and that he would cause further harm to his own party.
Sohail Afridi was selected and Critique of Ali Amin Gandapur was criticized.
Mahmood Khan, alluding to the political turmoil of the end of 2025, said that when Imran Khan “dismissed” Ali Amin Gandapur as the Chief Minister, he had three names in mind to begin with, but two were eliminated straight away as Imran Khan was personally familiar with two of them.
Khan said that Imran Khan didn’t know Sohail Afridi before but he chose him hoping that a tribal newcomer might bring a new character. But Mahmood Khan said that Sohail Afridi had no administrative experience and was under tremendous pressure, as near-kin had made the Chief Minister’s House a profit-making venture. Besides, he condemned Ali Amin Gandapur for not producing any tangible governance results in his 19-month tenure, and he was dismissed when the leadership realized he was dealing with other power centres.
Moving on the TTP Return Decisions and 2023 Assembly Dissolution
Shedding light on the past big policy decisions, Khan said an in-camera meeting called by all the chief ministers of the provinces and opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif had been held to discuss the reintegration plan for those linked to the Tehrik-e-Insaf Pakistan from Afghanistan, which was a “collective leadership consensus” and not a unilateral decision by any one chief minister.
When asked about the contentious move of dissolving the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in early 2023, Mahmood Khan recalled that the idea of dissolving the Assembly had been placed in Imran Khan’s ear by its original author, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, despite the opposition of its provincial leadership, before being supported by Fawad Chaudhry and other figures from the province. He further asserted that if the dissolution process had been strategically managed and started with Punjab, things would have been very different.