Communication breakdown: Provincial leadership makes SOS calls to Nawaz Sharif

Instead of resolving internal disputes themselves, PML-N workers run to president for help

PESHAWAR: The lack of intra-party communication has left the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in disarray and dented its unity in the province.

A party leader familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune on Saturday that decisions taken by leaders in an individual capacity create resentment among party workers.

Instead of resolving outstanding disputes themselves, the party’s provincial stalwarts have resorted to communicate directly with the PML-N chief, Mian Nawaz Sharif, asking him to address their concerns.

Recently PML-N K-P President Pir Sabir Shah issued a show-cause notice to the Women Wing Central General Secretary MPA Shazia Aurangzeb, for rejecting the appointment of new women office bearers. Following the notice, Aurangzeb went to Lahore to redress the matter. She told The Express Tribune that she had taken up the issue with the party’s Women Wing President Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

“They (leaders in K-P) do not sit together and their hostility towards each other is not a good omen for the party in the province,” the party official said.

Similarly, the party’s top leadership in K-P, including Amir Muqam, Pir Sabir Shah and Iqbal Zafar Jhagra directly approached Sharif for their concerns instead of conducting meetings at the provincial level to sort out their differences.

While Muqam and Shah may have settled their scores for now, both leaders ignored the replacement of incumbent office bearers that were replaced with new entrants. This has further cracked the party’s unity.

Qavi Khan, who was replaced by Syed Mohammad Ali Shah as Swat’s district president, also took the matter up with the party president. Iftikhar Ahmad, a former organiser for Charsadda district, said that “so-called leaders have occupied the party at the cost of veteran workers”.

PML-N’s Peshawar District President Sattar Khalil, who served the party for more than 20 years, said he resigned in protest against the ‘undemocratic’ decision of giving high posts to new entrants.

In Karak, Shahjehan Khattak and his dissident followers in the party criticised the provincial general secretary, Rahmat Salam. Khattak threatened to breakaway if their concerns were not heard.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2012.