On 13 February, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan nominated Ali Amin Gandapur as his party’s chief ministerial candidate for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the recently concluded elections, he won both the national and provincial assembly seats, defeating JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in NA-44 and JUI-F nominee Kafeel Ahmad Nizami in PK-113, by a large margin.
 
Sardar Ali Amin Khan Gandapur is a Pakistani politician affiliated with the
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party since the beginning of his political career. He hails from the Dera Ismail Khan District of Kyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He belongs to an influential political family in the region. His father, Major (retd) Aminullah Gandapur, had served as a caretaker cabinet member under former president Pervez Musharraf. His brother, Sardar Faisal Amin Khan Gandapur, is also a politician.
 
His political career started in 2013 when he was elected to the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate from the PK-64 (Dera Ismail Khan-I). Following this he was appointed the Provincial Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Revenue and Estate in the cabinet of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. In the 2018 general elections, he contested for the NA-38 as a PTI candidate and won. He was inducted into the federal cabinet of Imran Khan in October 2018 and appointed Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan.
 
On 13 February, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur was granted protective bail by the Peshawar High Court’s Dera Ismail Khan Bench in twenty-six cases registered against him by various police stations. After the verdict, the PTI leader expressed his appreciation for the court’s order and promised to “continue serving the people.”
 
According to Dawn, he is a named accused in “multiple assault and corruption cases registered by police stations in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Gujranwala.” On 6 April 2023, he was arrested outside the premises of the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) Dera Ismail Khan bench. After his arrest, he had told the media that the bench had granted him protective bail in all of the cases but the police were keen on arresting him “without any justification.”  Another case was registered against the leader under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) on 8 April 2023.
 
References
Muhammad Irfan Mughal, “Gandapur gets protective bail in multiple cases,” Dawn, 14 February 2024
“Imran Khan Names Ali Amin Gandapur For KP CM slot,” The Friday Times, 13 February 2024
“PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur may vacate DI Khan’s NA seat,” Dawn, 11 February 2024
Muhammad Irfan Mughal, “PTI up in arms as Gandapur arrested from D.I. Khan,” Dawn, 7 April 2023
Umer Burney, “PTI’s Ali Amin Gandapur remanded to police custody for 2 more days,” Dawn, 11 April 2023
Creative Maha Haider &Hassan Ali, “Posts of power: Provincial cabinet offers diverse blend,” The Express Tribune, 13 June 2013
“Six federal ministers administered oath,” Dawn, 6 October 2018
“12 KP ministers take oath,” Dawn, 14 June 2013