PTI’s Salman Akram Raja slams KP CM Gandapur over budget passage

An altercation between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja was witnessed in Islamabad on Thursday when the latter lashed out at the former for getting the provincial budget passed in haste without receiving an input from the former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan, presently incarcerated at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

It is worth pointing out here that prior to Raja, it was former prime minister’s sister Aleema Khan, who had hit out at Gandapur for not taking her brother into confidence.

Terming the passage of the budget an act, which was done with bad intention, Raja said that he was at a loss to understand why the document was passed several days before the deadline, which was June 30, was over. “Before June 30, Aleema was to meet her brother in jail and seek his approval of the budget,” the PTI secretary general said, adding, “The KP CM did not wait for the former prime minister’s instructions and got the budget passed several days before the expiry of the deadline.”

Gandapur, on the contrary, was of the view that what he and the parliamentary committee had decided was the PTI founder’s decision. “When a man makes a decision, he should stick to it. Rather than backing down.” 

He further said that he had not got the budget passed to please any group, but to strengthen his province.

Earlier, talking to the media at the Islamabad High Court (IHC), the KP CM dispelled the impression that there were groups within the PTI, saying it was only Imran Khan who mattered in the party.

He went on to say he wanted to meet Imran in order to consult him on the budget. “But I could not meet him.” 

However, he said that whatever the former prime minister would say about the budget in the future would be incorporated in the document. 

He pointed out that there existed an article in the constitution which gave the Center the power to impose a financial emergency in case the budget was not passed. 

Responding to a reporter’s question as to why he did not comply with the PTI founder’s orders, Gandapur said today he was going to Adiala Jail to meet his leader. “I am answerable to him. He is my leader. Today I have to go to the jail to meet him. I have to satisfy him. If somebody else is not satisfied, I cannot do anything about it.”

When a reporter asked whether the decision to get the budget passed was taken during a meeting at the Governor’s House, the KP CM replied he did not want to see the face of the governor.

Also on Thursday, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said that the provincial chief minister got the budget passed without the approval of Imran.

Reporter: Tayyab Saif