Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The differences between PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Rustam Shah Mohmand, chief election commissioner for the intra-party polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were exposed on Saturday after the latter submitted his resignation from the office. Sources in the party told Daily Times that the intra-party election commissioner tendered his resignation on July 2 to the party chairman after developing differences with certain senior ministers in KP over surpassing his counsel in the appointment of regional party organisers.

However, a source said that party chairman Imran Khan had regretted the decision and was yet to accept the resignation of caretaker election commissioner Rustam Shah Mohmand. Rustam Shah Mohmand in his letter clearly pointed out that certain senior ministers and former organisers in different regions of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa never respected the jurisdiction of the caretaker EC. He also complained about their intervention in his domain.

Rustam Shah Mohmand told the central executive body in his resignation letter, the source said, that there was a huge gap between PTI workers and provincial leaders.

The source said that owing to the absence of Rustam Shah Mohmand and other responsible persons, routine work at PTI’s provincial secretariat has ground to a halt.

“Several bills of expenditures at the secretariat have been pending for approval for the last two month as none of the office bearers at the secretariat have performed their duty,” the source lamented.

He added that for the last two months, there had been no activity at the provincial secretariat, and no correspondence between the central and province secretariat had taken place.

An office bearer of the Insaf Student Federation (ISF) said that presently the affairs of provincial secretariat were being run by ex-provincial organiser, Fazal Khan. He said that ISF had also written a letter to Imran Khan and informed him about the issues at the provincial secretariat. He said Rustam Shah Mohmand apparently resigned due to ministers’ influence and meddling in revealing the names of the would-be regional organisers of the PTI, including Fazal Khan for Peshawar region, Gul Sahib for South Division, Dr. Amjad for Malakand region and Ali Azhar for Hazara region.

Members of the ISF, student wing of the PTI, had also expressed their concern over the appointment of Fazal Khan as organizer of Peshawar region in letters written to the party chairman Imran Khan. They had clearly stated the ISF would not look kindly upon Fazal Khan being considered for the party position. The PTI had held its first intra-party polls in 2013. However, Imran Khan dissolved all organisations last year and installed caretaker setup in the province.

Senior party members, on the condition of anonymity, told Daily Times that KP caretaker setup had been dysfunctional adding to the disappointment of the PTI activists. They said they had been looking towards Imran Khan to take concrete steps for the reactivation of PTI provincial secretariat.