Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A group of dissident lawmakers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vowed to hold a convention across the province against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. They also demanded of the party chairman Imran Khan to withdraw his support for the Chief Minister. This was decided at a meeting held at the residence of Member Provincial Assembly Yasin Khalil on Friday.

Among the disgruntled lawmakers in the meeting are MPA Yasin Khalil, MPA Qurban Ali Khan, MPA Babar Saleem, MPA Jamshed Mohmand and MPA Shahkeel Ahmad. MNAs Junaid Akbar, retired Col Amir Ullah Marwat, Khyal Zaman, Sajid Nawaz and Dawar Khundi also attended the meeting.

Members urged in their joint statements that party chairman Imran Khan should take notice of the party matter in KP seriously before it was too late, adding that if Imran Khan, despite their demands, opted to support Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, than dissidents group would organise conventions across the province against the chief
minister.

Members at meeting said that the chief minister has time and again violated the party constitution and allegedly maligned the stake of the party among the masses. Chief Minister never took senior members of the party on board while taking decisions, members added.

The provincial lawmakers lamented that sacrifices and hard work of senior members for the party had been overlooked in successive budgets and lawmakers of the others parties including Jumat-i-Islami (JUI) and Qawmi Watan Party (QWP) were given undue priority in developmental schemes.

A lawmaker criticised the provincial assembly speaker Asad Qaser, Atif Khan and Sharam Khan Tarakai for its misuse of its delegated power and fund embezzlements without any check and balance. They alleged that people have been taken in on the slogan of change.

Members said that a few provincial ministers had overtaken the whole provincial government affairs and none of the senior member of the party were given any heed when it came to making important decisions. According to sources, during the meeting MNA Jehangir Tareen reassured MPA Yaseen Khalil that all dissident lawmakers’ reservations would be addressed soon. He said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan would hold an urgent meeting with lawmakers in the coming days and resolve the issue for good.