Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The core committee of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) seems barren from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) representation as leaders from the province have very limited access and say in the decisions made by the central leadership of the party.

The senior and founding members of the PTI in the province Zafar Khattak and Wali Khan while talking to Daily Times on Wednesday raised reservations and claimed that the workers and leaders from the KP have been taken for granted in all key decisions and positions.

“All the key positions under the organizational structure have been granted to leaders belong to Punjab and Sindh provinces”, they maintained.

The overall situation has raised sense of deprivation among the senior leaders and workers belonging to KP province and it had gained more momentum after the party workers and leaders from KP suffered when PTI Chairman Imran Khan called for Islamabad lockdown which was followed by shelling and batons charge.

“The workers and leaders of PTI from KP stood bare handed against the shelling and baton charge of Punjab police on the single call of Imran Khan but they were always taken for granted in the important decision making process owing to its weak representation in the committee” Zafarullah Khattak added.

The founding members of the PTI told this scribe that around one million votes have been given to PTI leaders in the general election of 2013. He said PTI for the first time installed provincial government in KP but have no adequate representation in the central committees of the party.

Wali Khan said that sense of deprivation among the leaders and workers of PTI being aggravated if they were not given their due share in the central and core committee decisions.

The birds eye view of the publish constitution of the PTI postulate that there would be the Central Executive Committee is its main central council, with a duty is to assist the chairman with the day-to-day functions of the National Council to lay down party policy, to guide the party at national level and to act as executive authority of the party.

The leaders who have the reigns of the central leadership at the party consists of Shah Mahmood Qureshi as a National Organizer, Jahangir Khan Tareen for the slot of Central Organizer, Dr Shireen Mazari as a Spokesperson to Chairman and chief Whip of PTI and Asad Umar currently working as the Head of media, Marketing, policy but no leader from the KP chapter.

Moreover, the province has no representation even in the central information department of the party such as Naeem Ul Had the Additional Secretary of the party, Faisal Javed Khan as an Additional Information Secretary, Fayyaz Hassan Chohan for the seat of Deputy Information Secretary of the party.

The above stated equation available at the official page of the PTI gives a clear picture that Punjab and Sindh province of the country have overwhelmed all key positions in the party and have restricted the access of the leaders from KP to all key position in the party.

However, when contacted PTI Director Central Media Iftikhar Durrani said that there was no notified central committee of PTI and all senior leaders can take part in important decisions.

He said that KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan, Health Minister Shahram Tarakai, Shah Farman, Shaukat Yousafzai and other senior leaders equally participate before party intend to take any important decision.