All politics is local: Rifts deepen among PTI workers in Charsadda
Opposing sides hold news conferences against each other, allege corrupt practices.
A group of PTI workers also posted pamphlets across the district giving details of a “Rs20 million mega corruption scandal” by MPA Arif while purchasing land for girls colleges in Shabqadar.. PHOTO: FILE
SHABQADAR:
As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) celebrates its first year as the ruling party in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, dismissal of cabinet members, along with severe internal differences, has damaged its credibility.
In Charsadda, where the party only managed to grab one of six provincial assembly seats and none of the two National Assembly seats, reports have emerged of rifts among the party’s district members.
The party’s sole MPA from the district, Mohammad Arif, and veteran politician Lala Nisar’s son and PTI’s Peshawar region general secretary, Fazal Muhammad Khan, are affiliated with assembly speaker Asad Qaiser while another group of party workers is said to be loyal to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Differences emerged when PTI former central vice president, Mian Mukaram Shah, was expelled from the party by district president Zahoor Khan Umarzai, said to be from Qaiser’s camp, in the beginning of this year.
According to party insiders, when PTI candidate from NA-8, Jehanzeb Khan, joined hands with former provincial president Abdul Akbar Khan, the MPA’s group began agitating against the decision. When Jehanzeb recently summoned a party meeting at Akbar’s house, corruption issues in local hospitals and municipal committee along with the MPA’s alleged land scandals came under discussion.
A group of PTI workers also posted pamphlets across the district giving details of a “Rs20 million mega corruption scandal” by MPA Arif while purchasing land for girls colleges in Shabqadar.
When supporters of the MPA learnt of the discussion, they thrashed one of Jehanzeb’s colleagues and then threatened the former NA candidate, according to a party insider.
The district president and MPA then organised a news conference against former medical superintendent of the district headquarters hospital while the party’s labour wing president, Rasheed Gul, held a similar conference against the district president and blamed him and the district health officer Dr Nawaz Khan of corruption in the Sehat ka Insaf health programme.
When asked to respond to the allegations, PTI District President Zahoor Khan Umarzai confirmed a rift in the party ranks, saying “our own workers are our enemy.”
He said Gul and Mukarram have been ousted from the party and have no say in its affairs anymore, adding MPA Muhammad Arif is a sincere party worker and those who have launched a campaign against him are not PTI workers.
However, Gul told The Express Tribune that he is still the party’s labour wing president and was appointed by the central and provincial leadership. He added the district president does not have the authority to remove him from the post. He informed that the party’s provincial general secretary Khalid Masood recently made a district parliamentary board for the local bodies elections and included Mukarram and him, among others, as members, questioning how Umarzai could then claim they are no longer part of PTI.
He termed Umarzai a closet supporter of the Qaumi Watan Party, alleging his aim was to destroy PTI in Charsadda.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2014.
As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) celebrates its first year as the ruling party in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, dismissal of cabinet members, along with severe internal differences, has damaged its credibility.
In Charsadda, where the party only managed to grab one of six provincial assembly seats and none of the two National Assembly seats, reports have emerged of rifts among the party’s district members.
The party’s sole MPA from the district, Mohammad Arif, and veteran politician Lala Nisar’s son and PTI’s Peshawar region general secretary, Fazal Muhammad Khan, are affiliated with assembly speaker Asad Qaiser while another group of party workers is said to be loyal to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Differences emerged when PTI former central vice president, Mian Mukaram Shah, was expelled from the party by district president Zahoor Khan Umarzai, said to be from Qaiser’s camp, in the beginning of this year.
According to party insiders, when PTI candidate from NA-8, Jehanzeb Khan, joined hands with former provincial president Abdul Akbar Khan, the MPA’s group began agitating against the decision. When Jehanzeb recently summoned a party meeting at Akbar’s house, corruption issues in local hospitals and municipal committee along with the MPA’s alleged land scandals came under discussion.
A group of PTI workers also posted pamphlets across the district giving details of a “Rs20 million mega corruption scandal” by MPA Arif while purchasing land for girls colleges in Shabqadar.
When supporters of the MPA learnt of the discussion, they thrashed one of Jehanzeb’s colleagues and then threatened the former NA candidate, according to a party insider.
The district president and MPA then organised a news conference against former medical superintendent of the district headquarters hospital while the party’s labour wing president, Rasheed Gul, held a similar conference against the district president and blamed him and the district health officer Dr Nawaz Khan of corruption in the Sehat ka Insaf health programme.
When asked to respond to the allegations, PTI District President Zahoor Khan Umarzai confirmed a rift in the party ranks, saying “our own workers are our enemy.”
He said Gul and Mukarram have been ousted from the party and have no say in its affairs anymore, adding MPA Muhammad Arif is a sincere party worker and those who have launched a campaign against him are not PTI workers.
However, Gul told The Express Tribune that he is still the party’s labour wing president and was appointed by the central and provincial leadership. He added the district president does not have the authority to remove him from the post. He informed that the party’s provincial general secretary Khalid Masood recently made a district parliamentary board for the local bodies elections and included Mukarram and him, among others, as members, questioning how Umarzai could then claim they are no longer part of PTI.
He termed Umarzai a closet supporter of the Qaumi Watan Party, alleging his aim was to destroy PTI in Charsadda.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2014.