Imran’s Insaf Panel wins by huge margin

PTI intra-party polls

Imran elected as chairman, Shah Mehmood Qureshi as vice-chairman and Jehangir Tareen Khan as secretary general; Insaf Panel secures 189,055 votes, Ehtesab Panel 41,647

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan’s Insaf Panel defeated the only rival panel by a huge margin, as he got elected the PTI chairman during the two-day intra-party election on Tuesday. Shah Mehmood Qureshi was elected vice-chairman and Jehangir Tareen Khan as the party’s secretary general.

According to the poll statistics, shared by the PTI Election Commission, the Insaf Panel pocketed 189,055 votes while Ehtesab Panel, led by Naik Muhammad, got just 41,647 votes. Total registered members were about 2.7 million, which shows just over 10 per cent took part in the e-polling exercise. Some 26,256 votes were rejected during counting of votes.   

Abdul Aleem Khan has been elected president of PTI Central Punjab, Ishaq Khaqwani South Punjab, Aamir Mehmood Kayani, North Punjab and Faiz Ullah, West Punjab.  Dr. Arif Alvi is now president of Sindh PTI, Yar Muhammad Rind, Balochistan, Shah Farman, Peshawar Region,  Ali Amin Gandapur, South Region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mehmood Khan, Malakand Region, Zar Gull Khan, Hazara Region and Raja Khurram Nawaz, Islamabad Region.

PTI Chief Election Commissioner Senator Muhammad Azam Swati, who had faced allegations of not toeing the party line during Maneshra Nazim elections, when contacted on telephone, defended the exercise and said it would promote democracy and questioned would the PPP, PML-N or any other party allow anyone to challenge their leadership in party polls.

Asked about the allegations against him, he said a committee had looked into and found nothing against him.  “In fact, some people are jealous of my ability to work 24 hours a day,” he maintained. 

He was hopeful the poll exercise would help them assess the situation and get ready for 2018 elections. He conceded the exercise was held in a hurry but a due process was followed to qualify or election symbol by fulfilling a legal requirement.     

He confirmed having met the legislators of PTI belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and then the party MNAs. But insisted it was just to sensitive them to motivating party members to actively take part in the poll exercise.  

PTI wasted no time to submit the intra-party poll results before the Election Commission of Pakistan along with an application for allotment of symbol ‘bat’. Weeks back, the PTI constitution was amended to give only two choices to a voter i.e. panel 1 or 2, whereas the original constitution, envisaged election against each party post separately. 

Similarly, no party member had the option to choose anybody besides the two panels, the Insaf Panel and the Ehtesab Panel, with 14 members each. E-polling continued from Sunday to Monday mid-night.