ISLAMABAD - After the disqualification of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Central Secretary General Jahangir Tareen, the internal rifts present among the party columns, are becoming visible as the anti-Tareen lobby is getting a more active role, The Nation has learnt through sources.
Power struggle has started within the party, as the PTI leadership from North Punjab is trying to extend its influence to GB and Azad Jammu and Kashmir by developing contacts there.
The now former PTI Central Secretary General Jahangir Tareen through a notification issued on 22nd January 2017 initiated the GB’s provincial setup and announced Raja Jalal Hussain as its first president.
The affairs of the PTI Gilgit-Baltistan are being supervised and run by a three-member PTI Gilgit-Baltistan Support and Coordination Committee that is officially headed by its convener MNA Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
However, keeping both Jahangir Tareen and Ghulam Sarwar Khan, --- who are primarily responsible for GB affairs in dark, the PTI’s North Punjab leadership is reportedly trying to develop its influence in GB by triggering interference into its internal party affairs.
The PTI North Punjab President, Amir Mahmood Kiyani, has started developing contacts in the Gilgit-Baltistan and has started holding meetings with his blue-eyed party leaders from the region.
During the first week of February, Kiyani also arranged a meeting between the new party leaders from Gilgit-Baltistan headed by Syed Jaffar Shah, -- an ex-PPP leader and party chairman Imran Khan, a source informed this scribe
While arranging this meeting, Kiyani bypassed the PTI Gilgit-Baltistan Support and Coordination Committee, its convener Ghulam Sarwar Khan as well as president for GB Jalal Hussain.
Belonging to Tareen’s opponent lobby, Amir Kiyani’s recent interference has triggered serious reservations among the party’s pioneer leadership from Gilgit-Baltistan.
The source also informed that as per party constitution, Kiyani could not interfere into the affairs of other province where he enjoys no stakes or interests, adding “What he did could not be justified on moral grounds as he had nothing to do in the GB.”
On the other hand, the said move had reflected the weakening of Jahangir Tareen and Ghulam Sarwar Khan’s grip over the PTI’s Gilgit-Baltistan affairs.
The PTI’s new entrée from the GB, Syed Jaffar Shah was earlier leading Pakistan People’s Party in 2015 as a coordinator for Gilgit and Diamer divisions; however he failed to manage even a single seat in the previous polls for his former political party.
Whereas, on the other hand, the present pioneer leadership of the party from the GB raised the party to third largest position in the previous polls, in terms of number of votes as well as managed one seat from the region.
(Anwer Abbas is a correspondent for Waqt News)
