PTI workers unhappy with nominees for K-P party leadership

The Express Tribune

Activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have expressed resentment over the nomination of Azam Khan Swati and Khalid Masood as president and general secretary of the party’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chapter. PTI Chairman Imran Khan announced nominations on Tuesday. PTI former Peshawar district president Zafar Khattak told The Express Tribune on Wednesday, “The party has been taken over by billionaires at all levels. The tsunami brought them in and swept us away.” Khattak termed Imran Khan’s decision as dictatorial and said the PTI’s intra-party elections were a “complete fraud.” The PTI chief even admitted there were faults in it, claimed Khattak. “The by-polls for NA-1 Peshawar-I, where the party lost over 65,000 votes in a span of three months, are an indication that PTI is losing popularity,” said Khattak. Those who have been struggling for the party for decades have been rendered valueless as a group of four to five wealthy people have begun steering the PTI, argued the former district president. “The party chairman is helpless.” One of the party’s founding workers, requesting anonymity, expressed concerns over the chairman’s “solo flight” in nominating “unpopular persons” for key provincial portfolios. He was of the opinion that elections should have been held to fill the vacant seats. “We have a complete setup in the province; who did he (Imran Khan) consult before taking the decision?” questioned the founding worker, terming Imran’s decision as wrong. This is not the first time such an appointment has surfaced within PTI, he noted. “The PTI election commission’s decision was violated when Jehangir Tareen was nominated as the central general secretary.” “Tareen was declared ineligible during the intra-party elections by the election commission because, according to the commission, when the chairman and vice chairman are from one province, the central general secretary and central president should be from other provinces,” he shared. The worker added Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who had been the central general secretary, should have been replaced by holding elections.