GILGIT:
Serious differences have surfaced within the ranks of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) as some leaders make desperate attempts to remove regional president Hafeezur Rahman. The situation is similar to the one faced by Chief Minister Mehdi Shah, president of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), whose party members are trying to oust him before the region’s polls take place.
The movement against Rahman is led by Janbaz Khan, a PML-N senior who is also the opposition leader in G-B’s legislative assembly.
“Janbaz has started mobilising the central leadership in Islamabad and Lahore to dethrone Rahman,” an insider told The Express Tribune on Sunday.
Inter-party support?
Khan’s party membership was suspended recently after he sided with Shah on the G-B election timetable.
Shah remains opposed to holding elections in 2014, while Rahman has been pressing for polls in October since the PPP government’s tenure will be over around December.
Shah has time and again praised Khan’s stand point and termed him a true representative of PML-N.
According to a PML-N worker privy to the developments, Khan has also been joined by nearly a dozen disgruntled mid-level party leaders in his quest to remove the regional PML-N president.
While talking to the media recently, Khan stated he did not accept Rahman as the regional chief. “Hafeez cannot suspend my membership,” said the opposition leader.
However, the situation is not so simple, explained another worker. “Hafeezur Rahman is well entrenched in the party because of his ties with Nawaz Sharif and other senior leaders.”
Khan is among the leaders who ditched PML-N to join PML-Quaid while Musharraf was in power. However, he managed to get back into the party after the fall of Musharraf’s government in 2008.
“Party discipline is meant for all and we should all abide by it,” said Rahman when asked to comment on the situation.
“It is very important for us to be united to ensure our party stands prominently in the elections,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 25th, 2014.
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