A senior party leader in PPP Gilgit has also demanded replacement of Mehdi Shah with someone else within the party, saying Shah was ignoring party stalwarts in decision-making. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
GILGIT:
In an unprecedented move, 12 members of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) chapter resigned to express their distrust in the leadership of PPP president and chief minister Mehdi Shah.
The mass resignations have come at a time when the PPP, marred by allegations of corruption, has become vulnerable in G-B following a change of government in the centre.
Skardu PPP President Yousaf Numberdar, Secretary General Abdullah Haidery, Vice President Abbas Parvi and Kharmang tehsil President Niaz Ali are among the members who have tendered their resignations.
“Shah has damaged the party more than the former military dictator Ziaul Haq,” said the Skardu president, while talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday, a day after the entire leadership announced its resignation in a press conference in Skardu, headquarters of Baltistan.
“Enough is enough. We cannot go along with Mehdi Shah anymore,” Numberdar said. They have sent their resignations to the party chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, added Numberdar.
They accused Shah of flouting merit and promoting nepotism during his tenure as chief minister and party’s Gilgit president. A senior party leader in PPP Gilgit, Advocate Amjad Hussain, has also demanded replacement of Mehdi Shah with someone else within the party, saying Shah was ignoring party stalwarts in decision-making.
PPP’s Regional Secretary Information Rana Nazeem termed the move as ‘an opportunistic approach’ by the members aimed at gaining personal benefits. “Since the government in the centre has changed, the office bearers are unnecessarily finding faults in the regional leadership,” said Nazeem, adding, “Shah is an honest man who gives due respect to every member of the party equally.”
The row emerged a week after the party’s Skardu chapter opened its own secretariat, declaring it ‘the main secretariat’. The step was met with strong resistance from party leaders, including Mehdi Shah who called it illegal.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2013.
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Shah of Gilgit or Shah of SIndh, what is the difference.