ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, on Wednesday, approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking permission to meet incarcerated Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Afridi filed the petition in the IHC through a special power of attorney, the Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and cited the federal and Punjab interior secretaries, the Punjab Inspector General of Police, and the Superintendent of Adiala Jail as respondents in the petition.
The petition, filed through Advocate Syed Ali Bukhari, prayed to the court that the KP chief minister be allowed to meet the PTI founder ahead of the provincial budget for the next fiscal year. He argued in the petition that consultation with Imran Khan is essential for cabinet deliberations and governance matters, as he remained the guiding figure of the party.
The petition further stated that Imran Khan is currently imprisoned in Central Jail Adiala, Rawalpindi, and that prior requests for a meeting have already been submitted to the Interior Ministry and Punjab Home Department. It maintained that it is legally and morally necessary to seek guidance from the party’s patron-in-chief on sensitive governance and cabinet formation issues.
Talking to the journalists at the IHC alongside KP Finance Adviser Muzammil Aslam, the KP CM said that a meeting with the PTI founder was essential as the provincial budget had been prepared and required his final approval. He maintained that the people of KP had given their mandate to the PTI founder, adding that consultation with him on the budget was necessary.
He also said the province was being deprived of its due share of resources and alleged that KP was being punished for supporting the PTI founder. He criticised the federal government’s development allocations, asserting that the province had been ignored in the previous federal budget and development programme.
Afridi also expressed concern over the country’s economic situation, saying priority should be given to the economy and the welfare of poor citizens. He alleged that terrorism had seen a rise in KP and accused the federal government of treating the province unfairly.
He announced that PTI would stage a protest outside Parliament during the budget session, which is expected to be held on June 10, and reiterated that, as chief minister, he was authorised to make decisions on behalf of the provincial government.
Aslam told reporters that in the last meeting with the PTI founder last year, he had consulted him on budget matters. Aslam said the PTI founder had instructed that he be consulted before budget is prepared. However, he said no meeting had taken place before the current budget exercise despite the importance of such consultations.
He said KP had received only a small allocation from the federal government’s development programme and claimed that only six provincial projects had been included in Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
Comments