ISLAMABAD - Chairman Pakistan Tahrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan repeated his commitment in making the party an institution with political structure and internal accountability blended with discipline while addressing the Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Saturday.
He further mentioned about the success of the PTI during general elections of May 2013 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and said, “We must learn from this election and try to never repeat the mistakes.”
During discussion on the general election, the members spoke about their experiences and Tasneem Noorani gave a detailed report about the elections, rigging and party’s own shortcomings. There was complete consensus that PTI was robbed of its mandate through widespread rigging, including the questionable role of ROs and some members of the ECP. There was a reassertion of PTI’s commitment to pursue its demand for thumbprint verifications from NADRA.
The party reasserted the message of change which was and would continue to be the PTI’s message for the nation and its workers.
There was agreement that PTI could not be a party of traditional exploitative politics that had increased the burden on the poor while allowing the rich to get away with tax evasion and exploitation.
Party discipline was another issue on which there was consensus that this needed to be enforced across the board. All divergent views came together on these issues and the meeting developed unanimity of views after extensive discussions.
A resolution was also passed opposing the LG system being put forward by the Punjab government.
The last item discussed was the current political situation. Chairman Imran Khan informed the CEC about the APC and his analysis about the success of giving peace a chance through dialogue. He stated clearly that if dialogue failed the fallout would be on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Khan also spoke about the negative impact of Maj General Niazi’s martyrdom in the Dir attack, on the whole dialogue policy.
He expressed his fears that the APC may have been called to buy time for an impending military action, which would have critical repercussions for the country. He said that PTI would demand another APC if military action was going to be the option.
Imran also spoke about the achievements of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and reminded that the details of this performance would be given by the Chief Minister on Sunday.
Many members spoke on the current political situation, especially showing concerns regarding the issue of terrorism, the unrelenting price hike, the energy crisis and the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation across the country.
Inflationary policies of the government as well as the IMF agreement, which it was felt was a result of what seems to have been a pre-arranged understanding between PML-N and the IMF. It was felt that inflation and price hike were deliberately brought on by the PML-N.
It was pointed out if one reads the Letter of Intent in the IMF agreement, it becomes clear that there was a deliberate decision to make the value of the rupee fall - a devaluation done in complicity with the IMF. Note printing has also been done on an unprecedented scale by the PML-N as part of this design.
Civil-military relations, local government elections and the policies of other political parties on these issues were also discussed by the members. There was also consensus on the fact that PTI’s performance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be critical in forging the PTI’s future.
It was decided that at the conclusion of the CEC clear recommendations would be made on all the issues discussed in the two-day meeting.