PESHAWAR: Fresh signs of unease have surfaced inside Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter after a sizeable number of lawmakers stayed away from a parliamentary party meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, raising new questions about discipline within the ruling party ahead of the provincial budget.
According to reports, 52 out of PTI’s 92 lawmakers attended the meeting, while 30 to 35 members were absent. Some local reports put the number of absentees even higher, saying nearly 40 members, including former chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur, did not show up. KP government sources, however, pushed back against that count and claimed around 72 lawmakers were present.
The meeting, held under CM Afridi’s chairmanship on Sunday, came at a delicate time for PTI in the province. Reports of internal dissatisfaction had already been circulating after the recent cabinet expansion, with some lawmakers said to be unhappy over governance issues, development funds, bureaucratic hurdles and the province’s law-and-order situation.
For Afridi, the gathering was meant to show control. Instead, the mixed attendance figures have given the opposition — and PTI’s own critics — fresh material to question whether the party’s KP house is fully in order.
Addressing lawmakers who did attend, Afridi said attempts were being made to create divisions within PTI, but he insisted the party remained united under Imran Khan’s banner. He also said he would go to Adiala Jail on Tuesday to meet the PTI founder, while raising concern over Khan’s health and demanding that treatment be provided in the presence of his family.
Party sources offered different explanations for the absences. Some lawmakers were reportedly abroad, while others missed the meeting because of personal engagements. Still, the absence of senior figures, particularly Gandapur, has made the episode politically harder to brush aside.
The provincial government has tried to play down talk of a split. KP Information Minister Shafee Jan had earlier rejected reports of groupings inside the parliamentary party as “false, fabricated and baseless,” saying PTI lawmakers remained united behind CM Afridi and the party’s agenda.
Still, the timing matters. With the KP budget approaching, the chief minister needs a calm parliamentary party, not one distracted by internal messaging and attendance disputes. Development funds, cabinet representation and access to decision-making are the kinds of issues that can quietly grow into bigger political headaches.
For now, PTI is publicly insisting there is no rebellion. But Sunday’s meeting showed something else too: even in its strongest provincial base, the party leadership may have to spend as much energy managing its own lawmakers as confronting its rivals.
