Internal affairs: PTI to be reorganised in FATA after Ramazan

16-member committee to visit tribal areas, agency-level elections to be held first.

PESHAWAR: After long deliberations, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to reorganise the party in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). The party’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) General Secretary Khalid Masood has formed an organising committee, which will visit Fata and meet PTI’s agency-level workers after Ramazan.

The party candidate from Khyber Agency, Iqbal Afridi, who is also part of the 16-member organising committee, said the workers had divided into two groups during the intra-party elections. This has led to further grouping, said Afridi, because of which there was a struggle for PTI tickets during the general elections.



“Now those who are interested only in electoral politics have been sidelined and sincere workers still struggling for the party are left behind,” he added. “Therefore, our leadership has made a 16-member organising committee to strengthen PTI here. Elections will first be conducted on an agency level before they are held throughout Fata.”

A member of the organising committee, Sajid Khan Mohmand, said some former members parted ways with PTI because they had their own personal interests. The party is in a need of reorganisation in Fata, especially with the looming issue of internally displaced people, he added.

In 2012, PTI organised intra-party elections in Fata, where two main groups emerged to contest. One was led by Dost Muhammad of South Waziristan and Iqbal Afridi of Khyber Agency, while the other comprised Dr Khalil Rehman of Bajaur Agency and Dr Bashir Khan of North Waziristan. According to party sources, Iqbal Afridi’s group won the election in Khyber Agency, North Waziristan and South Waziristan; Khalil’s group took Kurram Agency and the frontier regions, while the election in Mohmand and Bajaur remained disputed. Resultantly, Dost Muhammad and Iqbal Afridi were elected as Fata president and general secretary, respectively.

The party also remained divided over allotting tickets. In some tribal agencies, the ticket was allotted against the will of the agency president, and thus, some workers contested elections independently against ticket holders.

Iqbal Afridi said there should be no place for those who violate party discipline. He added that whatever decision was made by the party chief Imran Khan, it should be acceptable to everyone.

“We have reservations over many issues,” said Afridi. “But to strengthen the party in Fata, we should swallow our grievances.”

PTI’s provincial general secretary Khalid Masood said the reorganisation will begin after Ramazan, since they are all busy with the issue of IDPs at the moment.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2014.