PTI Karachi leaders to account for poor performance in LG polls

Party workers protested outside Insaf House against prominent leaders

KARACHI: With the results of the local government elections still emerging, political parties have started to discuss their next step. To discuss future policies and campaigns to attract new supporters to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a meeting was called at the party's Karachi headquarters, Insaf House on Sunday.

Candidates were summoned to Insaf House where, according to party sources, the Karachi president, Ali Zaidi, asked them to explain their poor performance in the local government polls. According to party officials, the PTI Karachi team will make a detailed review of the results and will later announce the party's official course of action.

Meanwhile, PTI chairperson Imran Khan has reportedly sought a report on the performance of the party's organisers in Karachi. Khan asked Zaidi the reason for the party's poor performance in the LB polls of Karachi, reported party officials.



According to PTI leader Raja Azhar, the PTI chairperson has also questioned the Karachi leaders about the ticket allocation and to what extent the decisions were effective. He said Khan has also asked about the electoral irregularities and how the administrative machinery affected the polls.

Protest outside Insaf House

Shouting slogans of 'Go [Arif] Alvi, Go [Khurram] Zaman, Go Zaidi', around 20 PTI workers and party supporters protested outside Insaf House on Sunday against the prominent faces of the PTI's Karachi chapter.

They alleged that the leaders ignored the old party workers and instead handed over tickets for the slots of chairman and vice-chairman to their relatives and friends. "These people are responsible for the party's defeat in the LG polls," said Usman Kohistani, a PTI leader leading the protest.

Kohistani said the old workers of the party are visionary and believe in the merit system but the new faces in the party have hijacked Khan's vision for a Naya Pakistan. He said that Khan has asked Zaidi and all the district teams to account for the party's poor performance.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th,  2015.