Prime Minister Imran Khan has chosen to dissolve all Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf organisations across Pakistan from the centre to the tehsil level following the party’s defeat in the first phase of the local body polls in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The decision of the prime minister was revealed by Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Friday during a press briefing in the capital.
The information minister revealed that the premier was dissatisfied about the party’s performance in the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Fawad Chaudhry stated that the results, particularly of the village councils, indicated that the PTI was the largest party in KP.
He stated that the PTI did not believe in dynastic politics and the party tickets should be given on merit, as opposed to what happens in the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
He added that the prime minister was angry over this, and added that if such a culture of awarding tickets was adopted by the PTI, there would be no difference between it and the two opposition parties.
He also spoke of the complaints received about party tickets being awarded to family members without any regard to merit.
Fawad Chaudhry said that the leadership of the party had discussed the party’s organisational structure, and after consultation, it was decided by the premier to dissolve all the party organisations from the centre to the tehsil level.
The information minister apprised the media that those who bore office had been removed from their positions.
Fawad Chaudhry stated that a decision had been made that party tickets would not be awarded by the local leadership and a special committee would be formed for this purpose.
The committee, according to the federal minister, had been given the task of coming up with a proposal for a new constitution and structure of the party, adding that the provincial chief minister had been directed to come with a procedure for giving tickets for the second phase of the local body elections.
The information minister revealed that the committee would comprise of Pervez Khattak, Mahmood Khan, Murad Saeed, Asad Qaiser, and Ali Amin Gandapur from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Meanwhile, him, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Hamad Azhar, Khusro Bakhtiar, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, Saifullah Niazi, Amir Kayani and Usman Bazdar would oversee Punjab, he added.
He further said that Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali and Qasim Suri would represent Balochistan, while Sindh would be looked over by Imran Ismail and Ali Zaidi.
Fawad Chaudhry also stated that Asad Umar would look over the affairs of the federal capital.
In the December 19 local body elections in the 17 districts of KP, the PTI gave what was described as a poor performance by journalists and analysts alike, with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl gaining ground.
Provisional results denote that in 47 of the 63 tehsils, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl emerged victorious on 17 seats of mayor/chairperson as opposed to the federal ruling party’s 12 seats.
The third position in the polls is held by non-affiliated candidates, while the Awami National Party stands at the fourth position.
Meanwhile, the PML-N has three seats while the Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan People’s party have one seat each.
