LAHORE - Shah Mehmood Qureshi finally came out of the shadows and beat the trumpet of yet another major divide in the PTI by throwing an open challenge to his arch rival Jahangir Tareen by announcing support to Shafqat Mehmood in intra-party polls for Punjab president slot against Tareen-backed Chaudhry Sarwar.

“Will I have to ask for party tickets to Jahangir Tareen and Chaudhry Sarwar? What are their services for the party? I had been with the party chairman for the whole 126 days during the Azadi sit-in at D-Chowk,” he said while addressing an intra-party polls convention at Insaf Markaz, the Hamid Khan and Waleed Iqbal camp. “It will be better to leave the party if the day comes to ask Tareen and Sarwar for party tickets,” Mr Qureshi conveyed to party chairman in a strong warning tone.

“I will play my part in awarding tickets if I will be given due respect in party’s parliamentary board. I opposed groupings in the party. I will give tickets to the ideological workers who served the party if I am given the opportunity,” he said.

Former Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar at a party meeting said that he acknowledges Qureshi as the second major leader of the party after Imran Khan as he (Qureshi) was the second-time vice chairman of the party.

Jahangir Tareen however expressed regret over the statement of Qureshi.

Imran Khan’s party had witnessed first major fissure when Javed Hashmi, who also belonged to Qursehi’s hometown Multan, rebelled against the party chief when he developed differences with him over Azadi sit-in in 2014 and finally parted ways with Mr Khan.

The second major setback for PTI came when Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed’s insisted at expelling Pervaiz Khattak, Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan, Azam Swati and Nadir Akmal Leghari from the party in the result of report of the commission he headed to probe into rigging practices by party leaders during first intra-party polls in 2013.

Wajihuddin pushed his demands through media conferences and TV shows and party chairman finally suspended his basic membership for discussing party’s internal matters in public. He is still sticking to his point of expulsion of the five leaders from the party who according to his commission’s report stool the mandate in 2013 party polls by bribing the voters.

Hamid Khan is Wajihuddin’s likeminded and always supported the line of his colleague. He also came up with another group in the party under the name of Workers Group which he said was a platform to assemble the ideological activists of the party.

Formal grouping in Imran Khan’s party surfaced before the first intra-party polls held in 2013. Two major groups under the name of Unity and Ideological were formed of which the first group included none other than Shah Mehmood Qureshi with Aleem Khan, Jamsheed Cheema, Mian Aslam Iqbal and others as its major players.

The second group included former party leader Javed Hashmi, Ijaz Ch, Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed, Dr Yasmin and some others. After the joining of Jahangir Tareen and parting ways of Javed Hashmi, new political alignments took place in PTI. Tareen overtook the Unity Group, pushing Mr Qureshi to the corner.

Qureshi, who later went into shadows, finally reemerged by joining hands with Hamid Khan, Saif Ullah Niazi (party chairman’s nephew) and Waleed Iqbal (grandson of Dr Allama Iqbal and son of late Justice (r) Javed Iqbal) in support of Shafqat Mehmood’s candidacy for Punjab president in the intra-party polls due in June this year.

The party’s vice chairman enjoys the support of many stalwarts of southern Punjab including Rai Aziz Ullah, Shireen Mazari, Sardar Bahadur Khan, Sardar Saif-ud-Din Khosa, Tariq Tarar, Amir Dogar, Aslam Ghumman, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Munaza Hassan, Sadia Sohail, Saloni Bokhari, Arif Abbasi and Hamid Zaman. On the other hand, Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan, Ijaz Chaudhry, Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and Khyber Pukhtunkhawa Chief Minister are standing behind Chaudhry Sarwar to support him for PTI Punjab president slot.

Ijaz Chaudhry and Aleem Khan who were earlier planning to run for Punjab president withdrew in support of Mr Sarwar. Mr Chaudhry waited for long for the support of Qureshi but when he didn’t come in open, Ijaz Chaudhry joined Tareen’s camp. Now both Aleem Khan and Ijaz Chaudhry will run for central offices creating more difficulties for Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Hamid camp in the party polls.

It is difficult to ascertain at this stage who will grab the crown for PTI Punjab’s throne but a tough competition is expected between Ch Sarwar and Shafqat Mehmood after the support of Qureshi to Shafqat.

Shafqat Mehmood is not a popular leader among the party activists because of his little contact with the workers, but having major southern Punjab leaders on his side, he may be in a position for a tough contest with Sarwar – who was earlier expecting a comfortable win.