PHOTO: QAZI USMAN
As the party’s popularity graph plummets in the province, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has fired the elected president of PTI in Balochistan, The Express Tribune learnt on Sunday.
Qasim Khan Suri, the youngest elected president of Balochistan’s PTI chapter, was quietly shown the door last week when two senior PTI leaders recommended that Khan kick him out from the party to pave the way for ‘nawabs’ and ‘sardars’ – the traditional politicians in the province.
“Imran Khan with immediate effect fired the PTI Balochistan president. Can he legally remove Suri from office? This is a big question mark,” a senior party leader told The Express Tribune on Sunday.
When contacted, Suri confirmed his dismissal and expressed his anguish over Imran’s decision. “I am a diehard worker of the party and will continue to work with the PTI. It’s me who arranged the chairman’s historic jalsa in 2012, when the party stood nowhere in Balochistan. Khan knows my contribution for the party in the province,” said Qasim Khan Suri.
“The old guard of the party has been sidelined in Balochistan. Now, sardars and landlords will bring change in the province,” a furious Suri told The Express Tribune, adding that there is no top Baloch party office bearer in the province currently.
He added that the party won more than 22 councillor seats in the recently held local government polls.
PTI Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari confirmed that “Suri has resigned”.
Senior party leaders said that Suri wanted true democracy within the party ranks, but that his open criticism of Jahangir Tareen’s nomination as party secretary general without elections is a reason behind Imran’s move to remove him from this top provincial post, they added.
They said, however, that under the leadership of Qasim Suri, PTI failed to win a single seat in the May 11 elections last year. This probably led Imran to discharge him eventually, they added.
On Imran’s orders, PTI Secretary General Jahangir Tareen issued a notification which states, “Balochistan provincial and district bodies stand dissolved with immediate effect.” He also constituted an organising committee consisting of convener Humayun Jogezai, Zakariya Kasi and Mohammad Hashim Khan Panezai. “The mandate of the organising committee is to organise and enlarge the party in Balochistan, plan a membership campaign leading up to the formation of new bodies. The committee is requested to meet with the undersigned in Islamabad on January 25 to formulate a work plan.”
The development came after a confidential report of the reconciliation committee was presented by Azam Khan Swati and Ishaq Khan Khakwani to Imran, which highlighted that the PTI’s popularity fell from 37% in 2012 to zero in 2013.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2014.
COMMENTS (34)
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any how every body has to go, will see how long imran khan will stay.?
Little hitler-dictator
@ Pakistani
God forbid if people like you join the government who can just criticize yet have null contribution to the society. These days its a social norms to point fingers, so perhaps you are just a puppet who knows how to play on the tunes of society. I wish someday you find enough courage to walk in the same shoes of a bureaucrat, but why would you? you already have a good life, health and family. So why not just sit on a comfy sofa, sip your tea and criticize everyone who is at least try to do some effort for the people for Pakistan.
You can clearly smell the biase in this artcle / news item from the very first sentence "Khan kick him out from the party "o pave the way for ‘nawabs’ and ‘sardars’ where he has mixed his opinion with the news item. Shame on you ET
Instead of defending Qasim Khan Suri, can anyone tell me what is the party performance in general and LB elections?
who is going to fire Imran for his performance? Not the 'performance' on TV which has been outstanding, but in getting rid of corruption in 90 no wait 180 or was it 270 days?
All in the name of 'electables', which clearly establishes that PTI's philosophy (if they have one at all) has been outdone by personalities. People are not attracted by PTI as they were by PPP's which whitewashed all individual clout and attracted masses by its manifesto in 1971, under 4 years of inception. And then they have the audacity of comparing themselves with the AAM party in India. AAM has no electables of yester years. It was all about fresh faces powered by philosophy which the masses found appealing
IK visited Quetta/ Balochistan only a couple of times in the last 2 years - not sure if Suri was responsible for that too.
I tend to compare Marvi Memon's road travelling across Sindh and Balochistan compared to IK and PTI senior leadership road trips acorss Punjab and KPK partially touching Sindh outside Karachi - to me it reflects party's focus and weightage to the province / constituency
Firing someone for poor performance is a sign that pti believes in merit. Excellent decision pti. I hope everyone in Pakistan is judged on its performance and not for other things.
Qasim suri was one of oldest member of party. And hard working member. But there were very serious allegations of rigging against him during intra-party elections.
Cant understand why internal matters within PTI land in the front page. In PMLN, when Sharif's relatives are appointed key positions, the news ends up somewhere in the last pages
Imran Khan fires someone, must be for the wrong reason right? Can't be because he under performed or anything.
I guess thats a good move, when an individual is not able to meet the expectations then one should be fired and replaced by competent person. Best of luck Baluchistan chapter PTI.
You made the correction from Jahangir Tarin to Jahangir Tareen, atleast mention that you did mistake and have make a correction.
Although Qasim Suri's sincerity to the party's cause can not be doubted, he has not proved to be effective in expanding the party's message. A new provincial head may do a better job.
God forbid if PML(N) has to follow a honest performance oriented evaluation of its ministers, there will be no body left to run any ministry / department and for that matter, the party itself.
there were a lot of conflicts in the balochistan chapter
I dont know what IK is thinking but being a PTI supporter i think its not a correct move by Khan