Office-bearers election: PTI aspirants in Mansehra downplay rifts amid wrangling

MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) aspirants for the office of district president have ruled out any differences in the party over nominations for the district chapter, saying whoever is chosen by selection committee to lead the party in the district, others would accept it wholeheartedly.

“Though a majority of workers want me to resume my responsibilities as district president, I want to make it clear that whatever party decides, I will accept it with an open mind,” MNA Babar Saleem Swati told reporters on Sunday. The party’s selection committee, being led in Hazara by Senator Azam Khan Swati, was recently criticised by party workers on its selections of Hazara division’s office-bearers. The same selection committee, according to party sources, is going to announce Mansehra’s office-bearers shortly, which sparked criticism by the party workers. Taimur Khan Swati, the younger brother of MPA Babar Saleem Swati, said that if his elder brother was not re-nominated as district president, the PTI would face a division. “This is Babar Saleem Swati who introduced PTI at the grassroots in the district as president and was elected as MPA and deserves to assume this office again to keep it united,” Taimur said. The former district general secretary Shahid Rafique, who is also among aspirants for top district office, said that he was ignored several times when the party awarded tickets to others for the provincial assembly. “If selection committee announces me or Babar Saleem Swati as district president, I would accept it but I cannot allow anybody to create rifts between me and Swati and within the party as a whole,” said Rafique.