ISLAMABAD: Hidden fault lines within ranks of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) have surfaced before the crucial intra-party elections, to be held next month.

 

Senior party leaders from Punjab hurled allegations against each other making it rather tough for PTI Chairman Imran Khan to stay indifferent. “A pol partys (sic) strength is its message not billionaires. The fight in PTI today is between ideology & moneybags,” tweeted Shafqat Mehmood, who is contesting for the office of party’s Punjab president. His contender is former Punjab governor Chaudhry Sarwar.

 

In another tweet, Mehmood wrote, “Campaign for President Punjab in full swing. We will fight all attempts to turn the PTI into Q-league.” He was referring to pro-Musharraf PML-Q which ruled the province as well as the country with full blessing of the military establishment.

 

Both Sarwar and Mehmood are working day and night to win the most important political office after chairman and secretary general.

 

While Sarwar has got the endorsement from Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan, Shafqat Mehmood has the backing of Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Apparently, the intra-party election is a test case to prove which group really dominates the PTI.

 

A bureaucrat-turned-politician, Mehmood is the PTI’s only member of the National Assembly from Lahore. He was party’s Lahore organiser during the last local government (LG) elections. The party’s poor performance in LG elections prompted him to resign as the organiser.

 

The critics of Imran Khan often accuse him of relying on Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan just because of their wealth. And Shafqat Mehmood’s public criticism on party’s rich leaders seems to have endorsed those allegations. “People who failed to perform in the last local government elections are making baseless statements in frustration,” Ch Sarwar told Daily Times, referring to Shafqat Mehmood. He claimed he had stopped his team members from issuing counter-statements against anyone.