ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) of Imran Khan formally split into factions after election authorities registered PTI-N or Nazriyati as a new political party.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has formally registered PTI-N as a political party to be headed by Akhtar Iqbal Dar, an old ideologue of PTI but differed with Imran Khan later on multiple issues. Mr Dar had applied for registering his new party back in 2012 while the ECP registered his party on February 17 this year.
This is for the first time that a formal splinter group in PTI has emerged under a registered faction. The N faction in PTI may prove a magnet for the entire disgruntled and founding members of the mainstream Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf.
Mr Dar was not available for comments, however, Akbar S Babar; one of the founding members who quit a job in United Nations (UN) to join PTI, foresees more divisions in the party in future.
“Imran Khan dumped all the ideologues that had helped him form the PTI. He deviated from all the manifestoes of his party. He betrayed his friends, his mentors and ideologues. PTI under Imran Khan is mothering all betrayals. He killed the hope and the future young generation had dreamt of,” Mr Babar told The Nation.
He said all the founding members of PTI including Saeedullah Niazi (cousin of Imran Khan), Syed Hussain Shah (Attock), Khwaja Imtiaz (Rawalpindi), Saad Abdullah (Peshawar) and some others were kicked off by Imran Khan when they drew his attention towards the growing influence of ‘industrialists’ in the party.
“PTI awarded Senate tickets to three rich influentials — Mohsin Ijaz Khan, Nauman Wazir and Samina Awan — all of them had donated money to Shaukat Khanaum Peshawar. It proved politics is business for the cricket star (Imran Khan),” Mr Babar, who has served PTI as spokesperson besides introducing PTI in Balochistan, said.
He said PTI-N will be joined by all those who parted ways with Imran Khan on the issue of principality.
The emergence of PTI-N at a time when PTI will be holding intra-party in near future, according to political observers, will land the mainstream in disarray.
