All is not well within PML-N’s Pindi chapter

Disgruntled leaders to lead separate convoys to welcome party supremo

RAWALPINDI:

The rifts within the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Rawalpindi have deepened as preparations are underway for the return of party supremo Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan.

Nasir Butt – a long-time associate of Nawaz Sharif – was not invited to participate in any significant party meetings. Similarly, former National Assembly candidate Sajjad Khan and former MNA Malik Shakeel Awan were also being overlooked by the leadership, therefore, the local leaders and workers will not be able to run a unified show on October 21.

All the infuriated leaders have initiated preparations to form separate rallies instead of being part of the main convoy headed to Lahore. The local leaders are ready to go to Lahore under the leadership of Nasir Butt.

Read more: PML-N gets permission to hold Minar-e-Pakistan rally

According to sources, senior party leader and former senator Chaudhry Tanveer Khan can play a key role in persuading all the dissidents in the current situation.

Party sources told The Express Tribune that differences have intensified in PML-N Rawalpindi over the preparations being made to welcome Sharif.

PML-N’s Punjab Senior Vice President Hanif Abbasi organised over 10 corner meetings to keep the workers ready to welcome the party chief. However, Nasir Butt, Sajjad Khan and Shakeel Awan were not invited to any corner meetings.

On the other hand, Butt held more than two corner meetings at Dhok Rata Haji House, in which no local leaders, including Hanif Abbasi, were invited. Similarly, former National Assembly candidate Sajjad Khan held a meeting with workers in a local hotel after returning from London but did not invite any of the local leaders.

According to sources, Nasir Butt along with Sajjad Khan, will lead a separate convoy to Lahore on October 21. He has organised a grand breakfast near Committee Chowk on the morning of October 21 to re-establish contact with the local workers and will also ask all workers to join the convoy for departure to Lahore.

Also read: Nawaz-led PML-N epitome of people's defender: Shehbaz

The sources said former MNA Shakeel Awan has also held a separate corner meeting in his constituency in which no leader was invited. Sources further said that the differences between the local leaders have increased to such an extent that the disgruntled leaders did not listen even to the words of Atta Tarar and former federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq. Seeing the differences in the local leadership, Tarar and Rafiq addressed party workers at separate venues in the garrison city and tried to persuade the disgruntled workers at this critical juncture.

According to sources, Butt believes that he made a significant sacrifice for the central leadership by recording a secret video of the former accountability court judge, Arshad Malik. Consequently, he feels that he should be accorded more importance within the Rawalpindi leadership. However, the party leadership in Rawalpindi has been consistently ignoring him as well as Sajjad Khan and Malik Shakeel Awan.

The sources have also said that the central leadership is expressing deep concern regarding the divisions in Rawalpindi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2023.