PTI public critics to lose party membership: Imran

ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday warned that the basic membership of party leaders criticising the party’s policies in public would be cancelled.
A circular issued by the PTI central secretariat, bearing Imran’s signatures, asked the party members to keep their discussions on party matters strictly within the party.“The PTI is a democratic party and its members have the right to express their opinion within the party,” reads the circular sent out to the party members.
“Subsequently, if any member goes public and challenges the party decisions, it is a serious breach of discipline and unacceptable.”Expressing confidence in the party’s new chief election commissioner, former interior secretary Tasneem Noorani, Imran said the suggestions and recommendations of Justice Wajeeh’s inquiry report would be taken into account this time.
“We do not want to repeat the same mistakes,” Khan said, adding, “Holding such large-scale elections within the party was no small feat.” He said the PTI was the only truly democratic party in Pakistan and ruled out rumours of a “qabza group” in the party.
The PTI chief said his party will hold internal polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa first because local government elections had already taken place there. “It is much easier to conduct the intra-party election if the LG polls have been conducted in an area,” said Imran Khan, adding that intra-party polls in the Punjab and Sindh will take place “immediately after the LG polls in the two provinces.”
Imran said the PTI will initiate a thorough membership drive throughout the country before re-election to update its electoral rolls and will elect new office-bearers in a free and fair election environment. Imran challenged the government to accept the resignations of his party’s members of the National Assembly.
“Let them make their decision and throw us out if need be; we will run the best election campaign,” he said while talking to media persons here.He said the PTI didn’t need to sit in the assemblies and that he would himself lead the re-election campaign.
Criticising the ruling PML-N, he said the government needs to stop playing a double game with his party. “They invited us to attend the assembly sessions and then they attempted to ridicule us,” he added.
Imran said the PTI won more votes after re-election in different constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.He said the inquiry commission in its report gave 40 observations over the failure of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the last general elections.The PTI chairman admitted that a few mistakes were made in the intra-party election, saying “we learn from our mistakes and will correct them”.