Muhammad Sohail Khan Afridi is a young political leader who is currently serving as the 19th Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since his appointment by Imran Khan on 15 October 2025. Hailing from the Bara Tehsil of the Khyber District, he is the youngest Chief Minister of any province in Pakistan, and is the first Chief Minister to be from the tribal areas. He is a grassroots worker of PTI and a trusted believer in its ideology.
Afridi was born in July 1989 and is one of six brothers. He has an educated background, doing his matriculation from the Muslim Public School and later studying at FC Government High School, both in Peshawar. He is an alumni of the University of Peshawar, where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics.
He joined the Insaf Student Federation (ISF) during his university days, where he called for education reforms and social justice. He was elected President of the Insaf Student Federation on the Peshawar university campus in 2015. Two years later, he became ISF Peshawar region president and then the provincial president of ISF KP. He also lead the Insaf Youth Wing in the KP, where he played a role in reorganising youth activists.
He was elected as an MPA from PK-70 (Khyber-II) in the 2024 elections as a Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate, defeating the PML-N runner-up by a large margin, winning by 31,669 votes. His major victory showed large-scale support for him and Imran Khan by the population of the tribal constituency. He was chosen as Special Assistant for Communication and Works (C&W) in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government under Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, where he contributed to the province’s infrastructure agenda.
Imran Khan chose Sohail Afridi to lead Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in October 2025, because of his long-standing affiliation, dating back to his student days with ISF, and the ideology of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He was elected Chief Minister by a 90-vote unanimous election in the KP Assembly on 13 October 2025. He was subsequently given the oath of office on 15 October 2025, becoming the 19th Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, succeeding Ali Amin Gandapur. As Chief Minister, he has pushed for the restoration of peace in the province.