ISLAMABAD - The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) is finally divided into parts as Mohsin Dawar along with some of other founding members of the Movement set to launch their own party.
The name of the party is yet to be announced; however, sources privy to the development told The Nation that the name and constitution of the political party will shortly be announced and will soon be registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). It must be noted that many political and public figures including, Afrasiab Khattak, Dr Amar Ali Jan, Gulalai Ismail and Sana Ijaz will join the party of Mohsin Dawar.
Those sitting in the meetings of PTM told The Nation that the reason of formation of new political party by Mohsin Dawar was the upcoming Local Government elections in the tribal districts as he wanted to participate in the elections to secure his own vote bank in KP and especially in tribal districts.
A non-political movement started by Manzoor Pashteen a young student from the tribal district of Waziristan was supposed to raise voice for the basic rights of people living in the Pashtun Belt is finally about to breathe its last due to some internal rifts among its top leadership.
Afrasiab Khattak, Dr Amar Ali Jan, Gulalai Ismail, Sana Ijaz likely to join Dawar’s party
The rifts within the PTM initially erupted when Mohsin Dawar who is also an elected member of the National Assembly started lobbying for converting the Movement into a political party. For the purpose Mohsin Dawar within the Movement found his own block which was supposed to push Manzoor Pashteen towards parliamentary politics. However, despite several attempts Mohsin Dawar failed to convince Manzoor Pashteen and this failure led to a huge rift within the quarters of PTM. Many times in past the reports regarding differences within PTM were frequently rejected by the PTM leadership. The party had termed it nothing more than rumours.
A senior leader of PTM without mentioning his name told The Nation that the rift within PTM existed from the very first day; saying that many people with different motives had joined PTM which led to its apparent failure.
He stated that the bone of contention in the PTM was whether to take the Movement to parliamentary politics or not and this was the reason that those who were in favour of parliamentary politics parted their ways with PTM.
Meanwhile, another senior leader of PTM on condition of anonymity informed The Nation that PTM had lost its fame and popularity among its foreign supporters due to the allegations of corruption on some of its members living in Pakistan.
The PTM leader claimed that PTM was passing through a hard and tough financial crisis as the its foreign supporters had stopped supporting PTM through sending money from Europe, America and rest of the world parts as many of the PTM leaders were allegedly involved in embezzlement.
It must be noted that PTM had thousands of followers in Europe, Australia, Canada and USA and it has received million of rupees in the name of aid since its formation.
