Islamabad (Web Desk): Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is also Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has dissolved all party organizations following the setback in the first phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP).
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, after the meeting of PTI’s senior leadership chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that all the office bearers of the PTI’s organisational set up had been removed from their posts.
The meeting discussed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)’s elections and the general situation of the country.
He said that a 21-member constitutional committee comprising the national PTI leadership had been formed which was working on the new constitution of the party.
The members of the committee include Pervez Khattak, Mahmood Khan, Murad Saeed, Asad Qaiser, Ali Amin Gandapur from KP, Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Hamad Azhar, Khusro Bakhtiar, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, Saifullah Niazee, Amir Kayani and Usman Bazdar from Punjab.
The minister added that Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali and Qasim Suri would represent Balochistan while Imran Ismail and Ali Zaidi from Sindh and Asad Umar from the federal capital were part of the committee.
“After the approval of the committee comprising senior members, new organisations of the PTI would be constituted,” he said.
Fawad said that the PTI was the largest political party in Pakistan which had the status of a national federal party whereas Imran Khan was the leader of the federation and his vote bank was present everywhere from Gwadar to Khyber and from Karachi to Lahore.
“No party other than PTI is capable of fielding candidates for 1100 to 1200 seats of the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections,” he said adding that the PPP was now the party of Sindh whereas the PML-N was confined to Punjab only.
“As members of PTI, we have a responsibility to fulfill the responsibilities of the federation diligently considering them as national responsibilities,” he maintained.
Fawad said if the PTI’s politics was affected, it would affect the politics of Pakistan badly.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of PTI in the first phase of local body elections in the KP.
The minister said that the village council election results were coming, the PTI was still the largest party in the KP.
“There is no concept of family politics in the PTI as Imran Khan never allowed personal relationships to dominate his mission in his political career,” Chaudhry said.
“If the culture of PPP and PML-N comes to the PTI, there will be no difference between them and us,” Chaudhry Fawad said emphatically.
The minister said the prime minister had expressed displeasure over the distribution of party tickets in the KP’s local government elections against which many complaints were received.
The way PTI should had played its role as a major party was not witnessed in the KP’s local body elections, he said.
Fawad Chaudhry said that the meeting had decided that a special committee would be formed to look into the matter of giving tickets to relatives of PTI leaders and in future such cases would not be decided at the local level, rather they would be sent to this committee and which would decide whether to give tickets or not.
He said the PTI considered local government institutions very important for democracy.
The minister said that KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had been given responsibility for the second phase of local body elections in the KP and a ticketing mechanism for the elections would be set up, with the approval of the prime minister.
The decision on tickets for local government elections in Punjab would come to a committee consisting of PTI’s senior members which would decide the candidates at the central level so that no issues like resentment come up at the local level.
Replying to a question, he said the finance bill was not a personal bill of the PTI, and if the opposition did not want to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, they should come up with an alternative solution.
“Billions of dollars had been borrowed by the past regimes of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which had to be repaid by the present government.
“If they have any alternative proposal or agenda, they should bring it in the House”, he said.
