PESHAWAR- Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been in trouble since last general elections.
Direct appointments of party office-bearers further deepened already existing rifts within the party. The dissidents are unhappy over the decision of top brass of direct nominations. Thus, groupings within the party at provincial level widened as direct nominations encouraged even annoyed party workers at Peshawar and Nowshera levels to have their separate and parallel organisational units. It is feared if these rifts exist, they may encourage remaining districts to have same situation. Besides, every group is trying to get its own nominees appointed as office-bearers at different levels. The dissident workers criticise the performance of PPP leaders in the previous government due to which PPP now has no lawmaker in the National Assembly from the province. They say that after defeat in the last polls, the party should have immediately formed fact-finding committees to suggest ways for putting the party on the right track but nothing such happened.
Being a democratic party the party must appoint office-bearers according to the wishes of the workers, sources said, adding that majority within the party wants elections. The sources said that top brass of the party was against this idea seeing if elections are held in KP, the party would have no option other than to have the same process at central and provincial levels.
In November 2013, Khanzada Khan was nominated as provincial president of the party replacing Anwar Saifullah Khan.
Khanzada, while acting upon the directives of the central leadership, had retained some of the former office-bearers, which infuriated many senior leader and they launched a campaign for intra-party elections.
In the prevailing situation, PPP KP is in trouble and its leadership has failed to intervene and put things in right direction. The party workers are demanding implementation of the party's manifesto.
The PPP workers complain that central leadership has abandoned the party in the province. They say that leadership imposed office-bearers on them instead of giving weight to the views of local units of the party.