Malik Arshad Aziz
Sunday, September 07, 2014
From Print Edition
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PESHAWAR: The differences within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership have become intense due to the prolonged sit-in in Islamabad. The division is sharpest on the issue of resignations, which has divided the party in two factions.
There already exists a dissident group in the KP assembly which is giving a tough time to Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak. The number of this group in the assembly has now reached 18.
On condition of anonymity, a provincial minister said that they were fed up with the dharna (sit-in). He said they could not concentrate on official affairs and their constituencies as the public wanted a solution to their problems. He said several ministers, including himself, had tried to make Imran Khan agree to resolve all issues through talks and drop the option of the PM’s resignation. But Imran Khan was not ready to listen to anybody on this issue.
The provincial minister said the chief minister calls them daily on the phone to bring more men to the dharna. He said that after the no-confidence resolution, there was no option left for Imran but to dissolve the KP assembly while no member wanted to talk on the issue of resignations.
On the other hand, the stand of the rebellious members of parliament is that Imran Khan was playing a double game and they were being asked to submit their resignations while the chief minister KP and other members did not want to leave the government. They said their performance in KP was zero as the graph of the party was going down rapidly and a destructive defeat could be expected in the next elections. They said that the PTI had wasted the opportunity of making Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a model province.
PTI chief Imran Khan was facing extreme mental pressure due to the rebellion and he himself has admitted the split in the party.
The PTI members of parliament and party office bearers have stopped going to attend the sit-in which has made Imran Khan very angry and he has threatened to expel them from the party. The split started on the issue of resignations and moved beyond D-Chowk.
Earlier, three members of the National Assembly from KP, Gulzar Khan, Nasir Khattak and Musarrat Ahmadzeb, had announced their rebellion by refusing to resign and after that Qaisar Jamal and Khayal Zaman had also refused to do so.
MNA Gulzar Khan said that Imran Khan had adopted a dictatorial style and did not consult anybody and was not ready to hear about their refusal to resign. He said if the speaker summoned members of parliament, then several members would refuse to resign.
After that the party will split, he added. He said that was the reason Shah Mehmood Qureshi did not meet the speaker. He said the number of members of parliament who did not want to resign had touched 10.
All other political parties of KP are strongly targeting the PTI. JUI-F Senator Haji Ghulam Ali said the PTI was holding dance parties in Islamabad instead of showing its performance in KP.
He said the issues of the province were rising day by day, while the PTI had staged a dharna in the capital. He said Imran Khan had no concern with the IDPs while the sit-in was being staged on the cost of official resources. Gulam Ali said the public would reject PTI in the next elections.
ANP Senator Nabi Bangash said the drama of resignations was being staged to exert pressure on the government while the majority of members were not in favour of resignations. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, he said, has addressed the joint session of parliament in spite of submitting resignations.
He said the dharna politics of Imran had failed and he should return home. He said
the PTI had got 7.6 million votes in the
elections but even 76,000 people did not attend the dharna in Islamabad and this showed the reality of PTI’s popularity graph.
I twice call for it but.....
