Pervez Khattak likely to be given federal interior minister's post: sources
Atif Khan emerges as top contender for KP chief minister's slot.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister is being considered a potential candidate for the interior minister’s slot after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party emerged victorious from last week’s vote.
A spokesperson said PTI was all set to take over the federal government after having “successfully convinced” smaller candidates to join its ranks. A simple majority of 137 is needed to form government.
Read also: A cabinet in the making
Fawad Chaudhry said the revised count stood at 168 after independent victors agreed to join party. PTI had originally won 116 out of the 272 seats in the National Assembly, according to official results announced by the electoral commission (ECP).
Read also: Khattak rejects reckless news
Khattak, who oversaw the ‘billion tree tsunami’ project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, denied reports he had a row with the PTI leadership over the chief minister’s slot.
Dispelling statements attributed to him, Khattak said that rumours of factions within the PTI were nothing but fake.
"Khan sahab [Imran Khan] has not made any decision yet. I will accept whatever decision is announced in this regard. News channels are airing propaganda against me," he added.
While Khattak s nomination was yet to be finalised, Imran Khan on Tuesday gave green signal for the appointment of former provincial education minister Atif Khan as chief minister.
Read also: Complete election results
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said PTI had won 66 provnical assembly seats In Khybe Pakhtunkhwa followed by MMA, ANP, PML-N, and PPP who won 10, six, five and four seats respectively.
General Election
On Wednesday, millions of Pakistanis voted to elect a new government and prime minister.
Around 800,000 police and military forces were stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country as the voting took place.
Wednesday’s election was only the second democratic transition of power in Pakistan’s 70-year coup-studded history.
Pakistan is a country of approximately 207 million people, out of which the number of registered voters are about 106 million.
The voting for the Pakistan election, which took place between 8:00 am local time (8:30 am IST) and 6:00 pm (6:30 pm IST), saw more than 3,000 candidates contesting for 272 general seats of the National Assembly, while some 8,000 candidates ran for 577 general seats of the four provincial assemblies - Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
