ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday said his party was ready for re-election if the National Assembly deseated PTI lawmakers.
Imran Khan also issued a circular to the party members with a clear warning that if any individual commented upon internal affairs on any public forum, his/her basic membership would be immediately suspended.
In a circular issued from PTI’s Central Secretariat, Imran Khan also warned the party dissidents of further action after following due process. "If any member challenges the party decisions, it is a serious breach of discipline and unacceptable,” Khan said, adding he was concerned that internal party matters and decisions were being commented upon by PTI members in electronic, print and social media. “PTI is a democratic party and all members have the right to express their opinion within the party,” reads the circular.
This is not the first time that the PTI chief has ordered the party members to refrain from making public statements on internal party affairs.
Khan had to issue the circular after some senior members of the party, including senior PTI leader Hamid Khan and Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed, were found publicly criticising some decisions of the party or some senior leaders.
Later in the day, Imran Khan while talking to media persons after attending a presentation of the party's chief election commissioner, Tasneem Noorani, on PTI's plan to hold next intra-party polls, said he himself would lead the election campaign if PTI MNAs were deseated from the National Assembly as a result of the motions tabled by JUI-F and MQM. “We will campaign and come back in the assembly with bigger margin of votes,” he said and cited the case of LG polls re-election in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where his party defeated its rivals.
He slammed JUI-F and MQM for tabling motions to deseat PTI lawmakers in the National Assembly and said his party would not sit-in in the assembly as a result of some ‘charity’.
“I would advise my party to avoid going go back to the assembly until the government and its allies decide on the issue,” he asserted. He said it was incumbent upon the federal government and its allies to take a final decision on the motions instead of using delaying methods. “The federal government should give up the dual policy and shut up the drama played by it with the help of JUI-F and MQM,” he said.
Khan also sought resignations from those members of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), who conducted what he said controversial elections of 2013. There was no reason for these members to stick to their seats after the decision of the Inquiry Commission of 2013 General Elections,” he said. The party would announce its next course of action if the ECP members did not resign, he concluded.
Expressing confidence in PTI’s chief election commissioner, Chairman Imran Khan said suggestions and recommendations from Justice Wajih's inquiry report would be taken into consideration this time. He said the holding of polls within the party at this large scale was not an easy job. He said PTI was the only truly democratic party in Pakistan and ruled out rumours of a ‘qabza’ group in it. After the completion of local bodies’ elections in the Punjab and Sindh, the intra-party polls would be announced and launched first from KP where local government elections had already taken place. He said PTI would initiate fresh membership drive throughout the country after the announcement of election schedule from the party’s election commission and make its error-free electoral rolls. “Will elect conduct polls in a free and fair election environment,” he said.