PESHAWAR: The seat in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly where the Awami National Party parliamentary leader and senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour used to sit has once again fallen vacant with the death of provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights Sardar Israrullah Gandapur. Both were killed in suicide attacks.
After the death of senior minister Bashir Bilour, his colleagues in the assembly decorated his chair with floral wreaths to pay him tributes. It is expected that the seat of Israrullah Gandapur would also be adorned with a floral wreath at the upcoming session of the provincial legislature as the lawmakers have lost a decent and educated colleague in an act of terrorism.
Elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for the third consecutive time, Israrullah Gandapur was killed along with five persons in a suicide attack on the first day of Eidul Azha in Kulachi tehsil in Dera Ismail Khan.
He is the third MPA of the present provincial assembly who was killed at the hands of terrorists. Like the two slain MPAs, Farid Khan and Imran Mohmand, Israrullah Gandapur also contested the election as an independent candidate, but later joined the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Unidentified gunmen killed Farid Khan in Hangu a week after he took oath as member of the provincial assembly. Imran Mohmand was targetted in a suicide bombing at a funeral prayer in Shergarh town in Mardan. He was killed along with more than 40 people.
Born in 1975, Israrullah Gandapur did his Master’s in Political Science and entered politics in 2002. His father, former chief minister Sardar Inayatullah Khan Gandapur, was elected as an independent candidate and was the oldest lawmaker when he won in late life while Israrullah Gandapur was one of the youngest MPAs in the provincial assembly in 2002.
In general election 2008, Israrullah Gandapur contested the polls on the ticket of the erstwhile Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao, but joined the Pervez Khattak group and became part of the treasury benches.
Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) provincial head and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Sikandar Sherpao paid rich tributes to Israrullah Gandapur and said the provincial assembly and the PTI-led government had been deprived of a minister who was well aware of law, constitution, assembly rules and parliamentary affairs.
“He was so decent and gentle that the opposition members had no option, but to end their walkout whenever Israr requested them to do so,” Sikandar Sherpao recalled. Even in the previous assembly when Israr Gandapur was an MPA, the then speaker would get assistance from him whenever he faced problems in resolving some legal or constitutional matter.
Being Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Israrullah Gandapur had to attend every session of the assembly as he was supposed to speak on behalf of the chief minister and provincial government on issues related to the government.
During the last session of the assembly, Israrullah Gandapur told a group of journalists that he was tired of the assembly business and wanted to go on long holidays to spend some time with his relatives and people in his hometown.
“What will the government and the ministers do in your absence?” asked one of the journalists. “Let them handle the provincial assembly and government matters,” the soft-spoken minister had replied in a lighter vein.
Whatever he said has become true as the PTI-led provincial government would face problems replacing Israrullah Gandapur as law minister and defending the government’s performance in the assembly.
