From the core to the edges: PPP Malakand in shambles after local govt debacle

Former office-bearers urge central leadership to take leaders to task

BATKHELA: Abysmal performance in the recent local government elections has deepened the rifts in Pakistan Peoples Party in Malakand. Defeat in Ranizai tehsil of Swat district has had a domino effect in the party’s entire regional set-up.

Talking to the media in Batkhela on Saturday, former PPP Malakand vice president Haji Qasim Qasab and former district VP Haji Fazal Jamil demanded the party’s central leadership to put down its foot and revive the party in the region.

“The party saw the worst of defeats in Ranizai which is our provincial general secretary Humayun Khan’s hometown,” said Jamil, adding Humayun should be taken to task over the performance. “His uncle Mushtaq Ahmad Usmani lost the elections in a most embarrassing defeat,” he said. “And Humayan had distributed tickets of his own accord. He should resign voluntarily or be removed.”

Criticising MPA Syed Muhammad Ali Shah who is also the PPP’s district president, Jamil said all the lawmaker did was distribute party tickets amongst his own kinsfolk.

“We have seen the worst form of nepotism in his tenure,” Jamil said, adding the leader deceived party loyalists in the name of its slain leaders. “On his own, he is not even capable of winning a councillor’s seat.” The former district VP said the self-interested behaviour of such leaders is the very reason why most of the party’s ideological workers have deserted its ranks.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2015.