Protest campaign: ‘PTI Gujranwala gathering will be a historic one’

PTI Punjab president’s meeting with local leaders marred by arguments, name-calling.

GUJRANWALA:

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) public gathering in Gujranwala will be a historic event, its Punjab president Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry said on Thursday.

He was addressing a party meeting in Gujranwala, held to review the arrangements for the public meeting next month.



Speaking on the occasion, Chaudhry said: “The PTI workers stand united and will work to make the public meeting a success.”

Before Ejaz’s address, some local PTI leaders and their supporters exchanged harsh words and chanted slogans against each other and the provincial party leadership. Some of them also chanted “Go Ejaz Go”. Chaudhry had to cut short his speech due to the uproar.

The faction led by Rana Naeemur Rehman Khan, the PTI district president, clashed with members of the Ali Ashraf Mughal group.

Chaudhry tried to reconcile leaders of the two groups. However, former PTI city president Aqeel Dar, Insaf Lawyers’ Forum president Shahnawaz Buttar and PTI Farmers’ Punjab Wing president Ansar Natt refused to reconcile with the party leadership. They announced the formation of an “ideological” bloc in the party.

Dar accused the provincial and district party leadership of receiving huge amounts from candidates in the intra-party elections. “The intra-party elections were rigged. We do not recognise the fake provincial and district leadership of the party,” he said.



Naeemur Rehman said that differences within the members had been resolved. “The PTI leadership and workers will continue their efforts to change the political status quo in the country,” he said.

Mughal criticised the party workers who had interrupted Chaudhry’s address, calling them miscreants. “Such workers have no place in our party. They have damaged the party’s image with their unruly behaviour,” he said. He rejected claims of rigging in intra-party elections. “The party workers are united under the leadership of Imran Khan,” he said.

Former Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Punjab vice president Ahsanullah Warraich announced his decision on the occasion to join the PTI.

PTI Gujranwala leaders Usman Saeed, Rana Sajid Ali Shaukat, Qasim Ikram, Muhammad Saleem, SA Hameed, Dr Sajjad Mehmood, Abid Javed, Anjum Iqbal, Ashraf Butt, Shehzad Hafeez, Imran Yousaf, Muhammad Ali, Imranullah, Khurram Mukhtar, Jahanzaib Manj, Riasat Ali, Mohsin Tanveer, Malik Ramazan, Khalid Zaffar, Ikramul Haq, Feroze Bakht Khan, Khalid Nazeer, Imran Baig, Mohsin Tanveer and Naumanullah attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2014.