Ex-minister Shahzada Gustasap quits PTI over ‘wrong’ policies

MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) district president Shahzada Gustasap Khan on Thursday tendered resignation from his office as well as the basic membership of the party.

He cited the party’s wrong policies as a major reason behind his decision to call it a day. “The people have been suffering the brunt of the party’s poor policies that triggered inflation and unemployment. I have no moral ground to stay in the party,” Gustasap Khan told reporters after submitting his resignation to PTI’s chief organiser Saifullah Khan Niazi.

Gustasap Khan, who belongs to a well-known political family of Mansehra, had served as a provincial minister and opposition leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in the past. “I had served the PTI as the provincial general secretary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in early days of the party and worked hard to take its manifesto to masses everywhere, but even then the party leadership ignored me in the decision-making process,” he said. The former lawmaker said that he was denied the party ticket in the 2018 general elections from his ancestral Mansehra constituency but even then he secured 33,517 votes and his rival who was awarded the PTI ticket could obtain only 3,700 votes. “Though I lost the election, I served the party wholeheartedly but the leadership didn’t take me on board even in matters related to Mansehra district,” he added. Shahzada Gustasap said though he had quit the PTI, he didn’t want to join any other party.“I am astonished that a party like the PTI doesn’t have the culture of taking its district bodies into confidence in the policy-making process,” he argued. He pointed out that there were also differences in PTI ranks and this affected its performance.