Disgruntled PTI activists warn Lower Dir lawmakers to deliver

TIMERGARA: Disgruntled workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Lower Dir district on Sunday threatened to revolt against party’s elected members if they did not deliver.

Speaking at a convention of the party, disgruntled workers here, PTI local leaders including former PTI divisional deputy general secretary Ali Shah Mashwani, former candidate for PK-15 Malik Inam Khan, former Insaf Students Federation (ISAF) president for tehsil Maidan Fawad Alam, Zahid Khan, Ghuncha Gul, Fazli Akbar, Dr Ubaid, Tauseef Khan, Faridoon Khan and others criticised the PTI lawmakers from Lower Dir for ignoring the party workers in decision-making process.

They believed that even though the PTI clean swept in the district during the 2018 general elections, the elected members were yet to launch a single mega project in the area. They expressed concern over the recent appointments in the district health department and distribution of party portfolios by the elected representatives among their near and dear ones.

Criticising Chief Minister Mahmood Khan for ignoring Dir in mega development projects, the disgruntled workers said the chief minister had disgraced real PTI workers in Lower Dir by ignoring the area in mega development schemes and transferring the already approved schemes from Dir to other areas. They presented a charter of demands that included earliest resignation by the newly appointed chairman Zakat for Lower Dir, who, they alleged, was the relative of an MPA, forming a commission to probe the alleged irregularities made in appointments in the district health department, taking on board the party workers in decision-making process, announcing mega-projects for Dir and keeping members of parliament away from party portfolios.

The disgruntled workers set a 10-day deadline for the elected representatives from Lower Dir to remove their reservation and threatened to openly rise in revolt against the elected members from Lower Dir if they failed to satisfy them. Speaking on the occasion, PTI divisional finance secretary and founding member of PTI Lower Dir Khan Shirin assured the workers that he would inform divisional cabinet of all their concerns.

“We are trying to arrange the chief minister visit to Dir within the coming three months to address the genuine reservations of workers,” he added.