Accepting the resignation of Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto from the position of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Sindh president, central leaders of the party have given secretary general Haleem Adil Shaikh the responsibility of running the party affairs temporarily.
In late September, PTI chief Imran Khan had made Bhutto, who is a son of prominent Sindhi nationalist leader and former chief minister Mumtaz Bhutto, Sindh president of the party following Arif Alvi’s resignation from the post after he was elected president of the country. However, because of internal rifts in the party, Bhutto resigned from the post on February 25.
On Tuesday, the PTI in a statement said that it had accepted the resignation of Bhutto. In another notification, it said that after Bhutto’s resignation, Shaikh, who is also the party’s parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, would look after its affairs in the province till its reorganisation.
PTI chief organizer Saifullah Niazi and central secretary general Arshad Dad also met Shaikh and discussed the party’s organisation in the province. The leaders agreed to organise the party at gross roots level in Sindh and asked the party workers to prepare for the upcoming local government polls.
After taking over Karachi in the July 25 general polls by winning most of the National and Sindh Assembly seats, the PTI planned to expand its network to the rural parts of the province and as part of its strategy its chairman Imran Khan appointed Bhutto as the party head in the province. But it did not work out well.
Despite forming the government in the centre and two provinces, the PTI’s Sindh chapter is in the middle of an organisational crisis.
Veteran party members say the central leadership does not visit the province regularly to discuss their issues and plans.“They just meet leaders who are likely to join the party, and then leave without interacting with the party,” said a former Sindh office bearer.