Manzoor Afridi's name finalised as KP caretaker CM

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will formally announce today (Sunday) the name of Manzoor Afridi as caretaker chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after his name was finalized by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Opposition Leader Lutfur Rehman. In a meeting held at Bani Gala with Chairman PTI Imran Khan, the sources said that Khan gave formal approval to handpick Afridi as caretaker chief minister of the province. Afridi is the brother of Ayub Afridi, a sitting senator of PTI. He is also related to former Pakistan Cricket Captain Shahid Afridi.
Despite being close to PTI, the JUI-F-the major opposition party in KP provincial assembly - agreed to his candidature which, the sources said, became possible after Afridi, who comes from a rich background, convinced the top JUI-F leadership "all alone." "How he convinced the JUI-F leadership is not difficult to understand, as the party has a track record of wheeling and dealing. Afridi's name was proposed by the chief minister after consultation with top leadership and there is he now," said a source privy to the development.
The sources said that there was a possibility of someone else nomination if the JUI-F had not agreed to the proposed name, but after consensus between chief minister and the opposition leader on Afridi's name, his name was finalized. "It could have been a retired general, a retired judge and someone else, but to cut the long story short, Pervez Khattak played his trump card by nominating his man as caretaker chief minister," said a PTI man on condition of anonymity.
The sources said that besides PTI, other political parties had also proposed some names. Former KP Inspector General Abbas Khan, former Director General NEPRA Himayatullah, Sahizadullah Zaeed, a journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai, former Chief Secretary Abdullah and former Chief Secretary Shakeel Durrani's names had been proposed by different political parties, but none of them could make it to the Chief Minister Secretariat. This is the second time that the KP government and opposition have reached consensus on recommendations for the caretaker chief minister.
In 2013, Amir Haider Hoti and the then Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani had agreed on appointing former Justice Tariq Pervez as the interim chief minister. Tariq Pervez had served as the judge of the Supreme Court and chief justice of the Peshawar High Court.
Back in 2013, his nomination was challenged in the Peshawar High Court hours before he took oath. The petition was submitted by senior lawyer Mohibullah Kakakhel, who argued that Tariq Pervez could not take oath because the Constitution did not allow a Supreme Court judge to hold government office until two years after her/his retirement. He had retired from the Supreme Court earlier that year. The petitioner had said that the nomination of Tariq Pervez would adversely affect the fairness of general elections 2013.