PTI suspends Siyal's party membership, serves notice

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to Masroor Ali Siyal, a leader of Sindh PTI, for the alleged physical assault on a journalist during a media talk show.

The notice says, "Your behaviour has badly damaged the reputation of the party and created uproar in the journalist community. You are hereby given a show cause notice to explain your position within 14 days of issuance of this letter, as to why action should not be taken against you in line with the Party Constitution".

According to the notice, carrying signatures of PTI Secretary General Arshad Dad, Siyal's case has been referred to the Standing Committee for Accountability and Discipline for necessary action as he has violated the party discipline. Moreover, Siyal's membership to the party has also been suspended with immediate effect till further orders. He is former president PTI district Malir.

A video went viral over the weekend of Siyal entering into an argument with Karachi Press Club (KPC) President Imtiaz Khan Faran during the taping of a talk show at a private TV channel. Sial, seated next to Faran, is then seen standing up and shoving the KPC president off his seat and later hitting him.

However, the scuffle is immediately stopped with the intervention of the channel's management.

Earlier, in the day, Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Political Affairs Naeemul Haq, through a tweet, condemned the ‘violent reaction’ of Sial, saying "this kind of behaviour is unacceptable in PTI and is totally unworthy of a PTI leader." He announced that ‘strict disciplinary action’ will be taken against Sial.