Crisis averted?: Imran pacifies disgruntled MPAs with ‘hotline’

Aggrieved PTI legislators claim their objective is to ‘save’ the party ahead of LG polls.

PESHAWAR:

After a recent meeting with party chairman Imran Khan, disgruntled provincial legislators of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) appear to be pleased with the party leader’s response to their grievances.

Khan has decided to depute a senior officer at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat whose core duty would be to address problems being faced by provincial lawmakers, sources told The Express Tribune.

A PTI official also said assembly members were given a direct line of communication to the chairman, wherein they may contact Khan’s close aide Naeemul Haq who will make sure that all issues are dealt with swiftly.



Hours before meeting their chief on Friday, 14 PTI MPAs handed their resignations to Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid who himself was part of the pressure group. However, the party chief gave a loud and clear warning to the group, which is around 20 in number, saying he would rather dissolve the provincial assembly and call for fresh elections than be blackmailed.

The political crisis behind this group of ‘like-minded’ PTI lawmakers was triggered by a recent reshuffle in the provincial cabinet. Sources said most disgruntled members were unhappy over giving ministries to MPAs who joined the PTI after being elected as independent candidates.

The ball is now in Imran Khan’s court. Many ‘forward bloc’ members were surprised to learn that Khan was unaware of certain issues that were raised during the crucial meeting.



PTI MPA Javed Naseem said “We never demanded perks and privileges nor do we want portfolios in the cabinet. We have taken an oath and will thus identify loopholes in governance even if we are not part of the government.” The group was not creating waves for selfish reasons, the PTI legislator implied, adding members of the aggrieved group did not care that their actions were being frowned upon by other party members. “We will follow the PTI manifesto at all costs,” he said.

According to Naseem, this resistance had been coming for a long time. Since PTI won the general elections last year, members began feeling things were going astray with regards to governance in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Naseem reiterated his loyalties to PTI, adding he had sacrificed a lot for his party.

“I cannot say Zindabad to anyone else but Imran Khan and will not let him down as he encouraged us to stand against corruption and nepotism,” he said. The MPA from Peshawar was satisfied with his leader’s response after the meeting.

Dr Amjad Ali, one of the legislators who had submitted his resignation, expressed shock over the party chairman’s ignorance of K-P’s problems. He said the group had submitted a written statement that their main objective was to ‘save’ the party from total collapse in the local government elections.

“If we don’t eliminate corruption, people may treat us the same way they treated the Awami National Party and the Pakistan Peoples Party,” Amjad said, adding this was conveyed to Khan during the Friday meeting.

Meanwhile, addressing the media at the inauguration of the tenth round of Sehat ka Insaf in Peshawar on Sunday, Minister for Industries and Higher Education Shaukat Yousafzai denied the existence of any ‘forward bloc’ and said the provincial government was not facing any kind of instability.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2014.