GILGIT:
Following a humiliating defeat at the hands of a comparatively little known nationalist leader Nawaz Khan Naji, dissent within the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party has started surfacing as accusations and counteraccusations continue.
Local PPP leaders are accusing Chief Minister Mehdi Shah, Governor Pir Karam Ali Shah, PPP general secretary Ghulam Mohammad and Minister for Education Dr Ali Madad Sher for the decline in popularity of the party in the region and the subsequent election defeat.
“It was the decision of the governor, education minister and the general secretary to award the ticket to a man who had no roots in the public,” a senior PPP leader said while commneting on the Engineer Jawahir Ali. “Now they are answerable to the public,” he said.
Some party workers have even filed a written complaint with the chief minister demanding the expulsion of the PPP general secretary and education minister from party.
Fearing a backlash, the education minister, who was present in the valley supervising the election, has suddenly gone underground after the defeat and his cell phones were switched off.
A PPP leader Sultan Golden asked for a change in the party leadership in G-B, saying that instead of Mehdi Shah, someone else should be handed over the responsibility of party affairs.
Amjad Hussain, a member of Gilgit-Baltistan Council criticised the party leadership for losing the seat, saying, “Our party failed to win over the public who voted for a man who wasn’t even affiliated with a major political party.”
Soon after the election results were announced, a press release issued by the chief minister stated that, “If certain leaders had upheld the party cause, the situation would have been different today.”
Naji, the leader of Balawaristan National Front of his own faction, defeated the candidates of the two major parties, getting 8,299 votes against 5,043 votes by the PML-N candidate and 4,526 votes by the
PPP candidate. It was also the first time that a PPP candidate has lost the
Ghizer-1 seat.
In Ghizer, Naji’s supporters have been busy celebrating the ‘historic victory’.
The member-elect has vowed to bring in all the funds announced by the chief minister in election rallies apparently to influence the voters.
Shah announced various development works worth Rs100 million before by-election in Ghizer while asking people to support the PPP candidate.
“The money announced by the chief minister is now ours and we will not let it go waste,” Naji told reporters in Ghizer on Monday.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 4th, 2011.
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