PTI Keeps Junaid Akbar as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President
- Suggested slug: pti-retains-junaid-akbar-kp-president-october-2026
- Category: National
- Focus keyphrase: PTI Junaid Akbar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president
- SEO title: PTI Keeps Junaid Akbar as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President
- Meta description: PTI chairman Barrister Gohar has confirmed Junaid Akbar will stay as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president, with a clear chain of command in his absence.
- Tags: PTI, Junaid Akbar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Barrister Gohar, Noorul Haq Qadri, Ali Asghar, Imran Khan, Sohail Afridi
- Original element: explainer context: the notification lands two weeks after emergency and governor’s rule were imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 11, and three days after a public row between senior PTI figures over the party’s provincial leadership
- Sources: The Express Tribune (https://tribune.com.pk/story/2636690/pti-retains-junaid-akbar-as-k-p-president-grants-authority-to-noorul-haq-qadri-in-his-absence)
- Date: Saturday, 2026-10-24 (notification issued by the PTI chairman on October 24)
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has confirmed that Junaid Akbar will continue as the party’s president in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ending speculation about a change in the province’s party leadership.
Gohar issued a notification on Saturday stating that the provincial organisation would keep functioning under Akbar, with no changes to the provincial cabinet or the organisational structure until further orders. The notification also set out who will run party meetings when Akbar is not available.
According to the notification, Senator Noorul Haq Qadri, the party’s senior vice-president in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, will preside over meetings of the provincial cabinet in Akbar’s absence. If Qadri is also absent, the party’s provincial general secretary, Ali Asghar, will chair those meetings.
Asghar has also been authorised to convene and chair meetings of other tiers of the provincial organisation. The notification says he will oversee administration, coordination and supervision across the organisation’s tiers and wings, so that party policies, strategies and decisions are carried out.
Why the notification was needed
The clarification comes at a difficult moment for the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Emergency and governor’s rule were imposed in the province on October 11, after talks between the government and the opposition failed and a PTI long march towards Islamabad that began on October 4 ran into trouble.
On the same day, police arrested 59 PTI workers in Swabi and six others in Khyber district. Reports also emerged that ousted chief minister Sohail Afridi and Akbar had been taken into custody. Since then, differences inside the party over leadership and strategy in the province have spilled into public view, with leaders exchanging criticism online.
The October 24 notification is therefore more than a routine administrative note. It puts a formal chain of command on record at a time when the party’s provincial leadership has been under strain, and when questions about who speaks for the province have been asked openly.
The row it follows
On October 21, The Express Tribune reported that former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur and PTI secretary general Salman Akram Raja had exchanged criticism over allegations of internal divisions, the provincial leadership and the handling of the party’s political affairs.
Raja warned of attempts by what he described as “undemocratic decision-makers” to undermine internal consensus. Gandapur demanded that the secretary general substantiate his allegations and apologise.
The dispute intensified after a purported audio recording in which Gandapur allegedly blamed Raja’s “mismanagement and flawed planning” for the provincial government’s dismissal and the party’s current predicament. The Express Tribune said it could not independently verify the recording.
Gandapur also challenged claims that provincial lawmakers were trying to decide the party’s leadership and the next chief minister without the approval of PTI founder Imran Khan and the party’s political committee. Raja, meanwhile, maintained that Afridi remained the lawful chief minister and that Akbar continued as provincial party president, with Asghar acting in Akbar’s absence.
Gohar’s attempt to close the dispute
Gohar has sought to contain the fallout, telling the media that he had spoken to the leaders involved and urged them to stop issuing statements against one another. He maintained that the party’s provincial lawmakers remained united and that Afridi continued to be the party’s choice for chief minister.
Against that backdrop, the October 24 notification formalises the arrangements for the PTI’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa organisation. It names, in order, who will preside over meetings when the president is absent, and it gives the general secretary a clear mandate to run the organisation’s day-to-day work.
