At the time when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is strengthening itself by restructuring the party’s organisation at the central, provincial and city levels to overcome the crisis it has been facing as its top leaders have been arrested and prepare for the upcoming local government polls, differences in the party at the Karachi level have deepened after the formation of two parallel organisations in the metropolis’s six districts.
In June, Shah Muhammad Shah, the PML-N’s Sindh president, had announced the names of office-bearers of divisions, districts, and wings of the party’s Sindh chapter. However, in Karachi, the divisional president, Muhammad Salman Khan, and his supporters showed their displeasure at the announcement of office-bearers without consulting them. After consultations with his supporters, Khan on Saturday announced the PML-N office-bearers in the six districts of the city, after which the PML-N has two parallel organisations in Karachi.
The party is now clearly divided into two groups in the city – one is loyal to provincial president Shah and another to Karachi president Khan –with each group carrying out its activities separately, causing confusion among workers and supporters of the party.
Parallel organisations
In District South, Shah has made Raja Saeed and Aqeel Rehmani the president and the secretary general respectively, while Khan has chosen Sultan Bahadur and former MNA Shah Jahan Baloch for the two posts.
Similarly, in District West, Shah has nominated Saeedullah Afridi as the president and Rana Waris as the secretary-general while Khan has appointed Haji Saleheen Tanoli and Muhibullah Khan for the two posts respectively.
In District Malir, Shah has chosen Majeed Colony union committee chairman Feroz Khan for the district president and Sher Ahmed for the secretary general. However, Khan has announced Moinabad union committee chairman Haji Amin Mana and Shahid Iqbal Araen for the posts respectively.
In District East, Shah and Khan both have named Nadeem Akhtar Arain for the post of the secretary general. But for the president, Shah has chosen former district president Nisar Shah and Khan has Haji Sharafat Akakhel.
Other office-bearers announced by Shah include Ali Ashiq Gujjar and Naveed Ahmed as the president and the secretary general for District Korangi respectively, and Muhammad Saim Khan and Amir Advocate for District Central’s president and secretary general. Against them, Khan has announced Ramzan Gujjar and Haji Muhammad Iqbal as the president and the secretary general for District Korangi, and Muhammad Aslam Khattak and Noshad Akhtar as the District Central president and secretary general respectively.
Blame game
Both the PML-N provincial president and Karachi president have given explanations for their announcement of the office-bearers for the city’s six districts and challenged the eligibility of leaders from the rival camp.
Khalid Shaikh, the PML-N’s provincial media coordinator, said Shah headed a meeting of the provincial executive committee on Sunday, which termed Khan’s announcement of district leaders ‘illegal’ and against the party’s constitution.
Shah has also issued a show-cause notice to Khan for announcing divisional and district office-bearers, saying that the city president of the party had gone beyond his powers and in case he did not respond to the show-cause notice in a week, his membership would be suspended.
Meanwhile, Khan said he had announced the office-bearers after a proper and long consultation with the party’s old members and leaders in the city. “The newly announced divisional and district leaders will make the PML-N the biggest party of the city,” Khan said.