Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The ‘pressure group’ in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was not ready to hold any dialogue with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for resolving the political strife among the party members in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Sources told Daily Times on Sunday that the refusal of the group came after PTI Chairman Imran Khan held telephonic conversation with KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, pressing him to start the negotiation process with dissident members of the provincial assembly (MPAs) and members of national assembly (MNAs) hailing from KP.

Imran Khan told Khattak, “The process of Panama movement can only begin successfully in the country if the KP chief minister spent most of its energy to reactivate and re-energize various sections of leaders and workers of all regions that have become dormant in the province.”

Among disgruntled lawmakers, MPA Yasin Khalil, MPA Qurban Ali Khan, MPA Babar Saleem, MPA Jamshed Mohmand MPA Shahkeel Ahmad, MNA Junaid Akbar, MNA Col (r) Amirullah Marwat, MNA Khyal Zaman, MNA Sajid Nawaz and MNA Dawar Khundi remained the most vocal.

Pleading anonymity, a dissident MNA said that they wanted the party and chief minister to implement what was promised in the manifesto. “It was not implemented, which affected the performance of the party in the province, leaving no room for dialogue with the chief minister,” he added.

The pressure group confirmed that they would not hold meetings with provincial ministers and would only accept the guarantee of party chairman Imran Khan in this regard.

The source also revealed that KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaser and Law Minister Imtiaz Quarshi have been digging hard to resolve the issue and to hold a meeting of both parties after Imran Khan issued directives to the KP chief minister.

Majority of the MNAs and group of five MPAs hailing from KP were unhappy with the performance of the party, holding Chief Minister Pervez Khattak responsible for not working on the manifesto of PTI as promised, said a disgruntled parliamentarian, while another disappointed MNA, who has left PTI for the same reasons, confided how Khattak used to belittle MNAs of the party.

The statement revealed that Imran Khan took notice of a newspaper statement that some disgruntled MPAs had joined hands with the party MNAs, who had been speaking openly in media against Khattak and holding him responsible for poor performance of the party in the province.