Qureshi saves the day for PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday managed to avert postponement of intra-party elections and reinstatement of organisers.  He called for a panel to suggest ways and means instead of reinstatement of the party organisers and delaying the intra-party election indefinitely.

At the eleventh hour, the suggestion was floated by Qureshi while it was being anticipated that PTI Chairman Imran Khan would announce postponement of party elections and reinstatement of organisers under the pretext of continuing with the party membership drive for another two weeks.

There has been a deadlock between Imran and the party’s Election Commission on modalities of the party elections and the PTI leadership.  Imran and his team wanted only his own election and presidents of all other party tiers, barring the union councils, whereas the PTI Election Commission, headed by Tasneem Noorani, insisted election of all party office-bearers should be held, as it argued nominations would undermine the very concept of election.

Qureshi pointed out that the resignation of the chief election commissioner would not go well with the party rank and file and the situation could be exploited by the rivals, particularly the ruling PML-N, as already the quitting of the provincial Ehtesab chief had dented the party’s credentials of being the torch-bearer of accountability.

“Some of those, very close to Imran fear that in case of direct election, they may not be able to retain their present position. Therefore, they want that only the post of PTI chairman be up for polls and the slots of presidents at provincial, division, district and tehsil level,” pointed out a senior party member while talking to ‘The News’ here. 

On the proposal of Qureshi, a four-member committee has been formed, consisting of Hamid Khan, Asad Umar, Chaudhry Sarwar and Shah Farman, which will meet Tuesday to deliberate on the issue to come up with a possible way out of the present situation that has divided the party in two schools of thought.

The Election Commission hardly finds its role, if very selective poll would be conducted while many in PTI believed that it purely was the party’s prerogative to direct how and what should be the poll procedure.

KP Ehtesab Commission Act was amended and its director general Lt Gen (R) Hamid Khan who believed his post had been rendered useless by changing the contours of the act, tendered resignation. 

“The amendments to the Act are in total contrast of our well-articulated policy of ruthless accountability on the basis of which, we have been hitting Sindh government and today, we hear, we have ourselves amended the provincial Ehtesab law,” one of the participants of Saturday’s hurriedly called meeting at Bani Gala by Imran, revealed to this correspondent, quoting Qureshi.

Turning his guns towards the Ehtesab fiasco, Qureshi said in a letter, a copy of which was distributed among the PTI leaders during the meeting, that the amendments had undermined the ideology and vision of the party and its narrative against corruption.

Another veteran of PTI Saifullah Niazi minced no words in asking why an ordinance was promulgated instead of waiting for the provincial assembly’s session. However, none responded to it except for KP Provincial Minister Shah Farman, who said the development was self-explanatory and no further explanation was needed why the legislature was ignored and a laid down procedure was not adopted for legislation, if at all it was needed.

A the end, it was agreed to form a panel of experts, mostly legal, to review the amendments and also the possibility of, taking the ordinance to the assembly and this process of vetting the act would be completed within two weeks. 

“Yes, mainly two issues, the intra-party election and KP Ehtesab Act amendments were discussed threadbare during the meeting,” PTI Central Information Secretary Naeemul Haq only confirmed, when this correspondent contacted him.