LAHORE - PTI is to get interim office bearers in Punjab for steering the ‘leaderless boat’ of the party for its revival in the country’s largest province.

During the process of nominations of interim party office bearers, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Jahangir Khan Tareen have already been notified by the party chairman as vice chairman and secretary general respectively. Samsam Bokhari has been appointed as secretary information Punjab, sources told The Nation.

According to top party leaders close to Imran Khan, the party chairman has almost made up his mind to bring Chaudhary Sarwar as the interim president of Punjab.

Aleem Khan and Rai Azizullah are also in the race for the same party slot but Khan is facing resistance from old party cadres and founding members while Rai is not known to all the Punjab populace.

The party chairman, following the inputs from various party leaders, is likely to nominate Aleem Khan as the interim president for central Punjab while Rai Azizullah as interim head of the west Punjab, the sources added. Ishaq Khaqwani is likely to be nominated as interim president for southern Punjab and Raja Amir Kiyani is to get the interim office of the president for northern Punjab, top-notch party leaders said while unveiling the entire interim party setup for Punjab.

District organisations of the party will most likely to have the interim presidents elected during the intra-party polls of 2013, they added.

The party chairman will directly monitor the interim setup of Punjab, which is said to be the hub of infighting among various groups of the party. PTI has already facing serious situation with regard to infighting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the party leaders.

PTI’s first intra-party polls were held in 2013, but the party organisations were dissolved by Imran Khan in May 2015 following the recommendations of Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed Commission formed to probe rigging in the party elections. The Wajihuddin Commission found irregularities at a mass level by certain party leaders who used their financial means to buy victory.

After the dissolution of the organisational setup in 2013, the party got its first caretaker setup steer the party affairs and appointed provincial as well as central organisers to reorganise the PTI till fresh intra-party polls. The caretaker setup was disbanded early this year to hold new party polls to hold new party elections which were tentatively planned for March this year.

However, Imran Khan postponed the party polls for an indefinite period to launch a possible march on Raiwind in the wake of the Panama leaks. But the party leaders told The Nation that party’s core leadership advised Imran Khan for postponing the intra-party polls till the resolving of serious issue of infighting and grouping in the party. Through the likely interim party positions, Khan wants to revive its party in the politically important province which decides who will steer the wheel of power at centre, they added.

PTI is facing support issues in Punjab for quite some time which appeared in party public meetings. The party chairman, taking serious note of declining support of the party in Punjab, is ready to go for radical changes in the province believed to be citadel of the ruling party, said the PTI leaders.