PTI polls: Veteran politicians unhappy as youth take over party roles

Recent results of intra-party elections may affect party base in K-P, FATA.

SHABQADAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) heavyweight politicos, who helped increase the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) base, are slowly switching loyalties, disgruntled with uncertainty over their roles within the party.

These include former provincial ministers Iftikhar Jhagra and Khwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti. Former MNA and Awami National Party member, Hoti, has joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jhagra has returned to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

The latest loss for the PTI is the resignation of former director general Intelligence Bureau Masood Sharif. His ties with PML-N leader Farid Toofan from bygone days in PPP could lead to Sharif joining the PML-N. However, initial reports suggest Sharif might field himself as an independent from Karak.

“A party which cannot adjust its important figures is not reliable and cannot bring change,” Sharif said about the PTI.

Pervaiz Khattak, another former provincial minister, lost the intra-party election for K-P president to party ideologue Asad Qaisar in late February. Khattak lost despite the support of Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Senior Vice President Jahangir Tareen.

Imran Khan had removed Qaisar when Hoti had joined the party in K-P. However, in a news report from March 1, a senior PTI leader stated Qaisar’s re-election was a message for others who had left PTI due to intra-party conflict.

Hashim Babar, a retired bureaucrat and former central finance secretary of the ANP also lost, but to a relatively new entrant, Aatif Khan.

Qureshi and Tareen are likely to face more resistance within the party after PTI stalwarts and young party workers unseated big names in intra-party polls.

Dividing Fata

The PTI faces more challenges in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). After almost marching to Waziristan, Imran Khan gained some street credit with the tribesmen.

Tribal elders who joined Khan’s party are facing tough competition from younger workers and the PTI has split into two – the Iqbal Afridi and Dr Basher groups. It is expected the intra-party elections slated to be held in Fata before March 14 will further fracture the struggling party.

Fata PTI youth leader Naveed Mohmand told The Express Tribune, “We are busy in intra-party election campaigns.” Mohmand maintained the two groups which were divided over Asad Qaiser and Pervaiz Khattak are now jointly supporting the PTI K-P president.

According to Iqbal Afridi, a candidate for PTI Fata president, the party has divided Fata into two regions – north (Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur agencies) and south (North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Orakzai and Kurram agencies and the Frontier Regions).

The PTI has formed a four-member committee for both regions with Qazi Anwar, Asad Qaiser, Atif Khan, and Ali Amen. After regional elections, polls will be held to select the PTI Fata president, shared Afridi.

In Bara, 21,000 people have become members of the PTI, but, Afridi continued, access and communication problems will make intra-party polls in Fata all the more difficult.

Naveed Mohmand admitted party leaders preoccupation with recent intra-party elections in other regions detracted from the campaign in Fata. However, Mohmand was optimistic his party was still popular as the PTI is the only one which has raised tribal issues on all platforms, he said while citing Imran Khan’s ‘peace march.’

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2013.