Amir Muqam considers quitting PML-N

ISLAMABAD: As preparations are afoot to local council elections in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) before Punjab and Sindh, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is not in good health in this province.
Adviser to Prime Minister Eng. Amir Muqam, who hails from Shangla, the Pushtoon belt of the KP, is frustrated and is mulling over quitting his cabinet position in protest.
When approached by The News for comments, he said he has sought a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to brief him on the internal affairs of the KP chapter of the PML-N. For quite some time, he is unhappy with the state of his party in the KP. He has a long list of complaints that he wants to be addressed. He has repeatedly briefed easily accessible Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif about his grievances. There are clear indications that the adviser would say goodbye to the government if he was not satisfied by the prime minister, which will not augur well for the PML-N before the local elections.
Amir Muqam said the PML-N would have to be better organised and disciplined to contest the party-based polls. He said the party needed to start preparing for the elections right now so that it is not late when polls are held. He said a fierce contest was going to take place because of the participation of all the political parties in the fight.
While the PML-N is ridden with internal frictions and strife, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is focused on winning the forthcoming local polls. It plans to get its nominees elected as mayor of major cities particularly Peshawar.
However, a PML-N leader said that minor internal tussles are not unusual in big political parties and expressed the hope that whatever petty disputes exist will be sorted out before the local elections. He said that the PML-N would perform better in these polls. The KP chapter is dominated by the Hazara area while the Pushtoon belt has mostly been ignored. However, in the 2013 general elections the PML-N vote bank increased to 930,000 from 400,000 in 2008. Thus, it jumped to the second highest vote getting party compared to its sixth slot in 2008. In the Pushtoon belt, its votes went up by 400 %.
Everyone who landed in the National Assembly from Hazara area on the PML-N ticket has been accommodated in the government in one way or the other. But those returning from the Pushtoon belt have not been adjusted.
Murtaza Javed Abbasi, elected from Abbottabad, was made Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly; Sardar Yousuf, elected from Mansehra, made it to the federal cabinet; and Omar Ayub, elected from Haripur, chairs a standing committee. Capt. (R) Mohammad Safdar enjoys clout for his relationship with the prime minister. Topping all is Mehtab Abbasi, who was elected to the National Assembly from Abbottabad, has been Governor of the KP.
On the other hand Dr Ibadullah elected from Shangla and Shahabuddin Khan, Ghulab Khan and Nazir Khan elected on the PML-N ticket from the tribal areas, have not been made even chairmen of the National Assembly standing committees.
They resent induction of a Senator, not belonging to the PML-N, from the tribal area in the federal cabinet instead of preferring any one of them for the slot. They also express reservations over deputing some PML-N leaders from other provinces to deal with certain KP issues and urge that the party representatives from this province should be preferred.
Despite being member of the federal cabinet, Adviser Amir Muqam has no job to do. Initially, he was assigned supervision of several federal departments in the KP, but the arrangement did not work because the concerned ministers did not allow him to play any role.