LAHORE: Wajihuddin Ahmed, a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s disgruntled figure, has stuck to his demand that the “four corrupt politicians” should be ousted from the party otherwise everything will be meaningless, even if the party gains power at some stage.

Calling these politicians “base coins”, retired justice Wajihuddin told a news conference at the Lahore Press Club on Independence Day that Imran Khan was playing in their hands and ignoring the party’s committed and ideological workers.

He also ranked Imran as a low category political leader who is “neither an angel nor a devil.” “Personally, Imran Khan is a clean man,” he added.

Insists on removal of four party leaders

Justice Wajihuddin, whose party membership has recently been suspended, predicted that Imran would himself throw the corrupt politicians out of the party, believing “he is waiting for the right time”. He said time for the corrupt politicians’ ouster had come.

He stressed that the party should progress with genuine currency instead of “base coins” in the form of Jahangir Tareen (party’s central organiser), Pervaiz Khattak (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister), former Lahore district president Abdul Aleem Khan and former Sindh president Nadir Leghari who, he alleged, bought votes in the intra-party elections.

Justice Wajihuddin said he had recently met Imran at his residence in Bani Gala and found that the leader agreed that the intra-party election tribunal was right in its assertion that the election should be held at the earliest on direct electoral basis in a free and fair manner. However, the deadlock persisted on the removal of the four politicians, he regretted.

This situation prevailed in a meeting with PTI Punjab organiser Chaudhry Sarwar too.

Justice Wajihuddin, accompanied by some party leaders, denied forming any group within the party and claimed that he was trying to put party on the right path and those joining him were ready for all kinds of sacrifices. He thanked the PTI’s ideological members at home and abroad for forming a “PTI National Ideological Forum” to support the demand of reforming the party.

Answering a question whether Advocate Hamid Khan had deserted him in his pursuit of “taking the road less travelled to make a difference,” Justice Wajihuddin said he had himself stopped him (Advocate Khan) from joining him at the press conference as “his sacrifice is not needed now”.

“Since Advocate Hamid has a liaison with the party chairman and is privy to my activities, I asked him to continue acting like bridge between me and Imran Khan,” Justice Wajihuddin revealed and added that he was committed to bringing about positive change in the party, even if removed.

Alleging that the party is being run like a mafia without any institutional checks and balances, Justice Wajihuddin said the PTI had lost the 2013 general elections much before the elections were held. “Being a senior member of the parliamentary board, I witnessed that the candidates were awarded party tickets completely out of merit,” he observed.

Despite being suspended from the party, Justice Wajihuddin presented his seven demands to the party leadership calling them as non-controversial and hinted that he would travel to different towns and cities in districts across the country to meet party workers and mobilise them to pressure the PTI leadership to implement reforms.

He said a national conference would also be organised in Islamabad soon to mobilise the party workers. He demanded that a task force should immediately be formed, in consultation with our representatives, to implement the orders of the PTI Election Tribunal and Standing Committee on Accountability and Discipline (SCAD) in letter and spirit.

He said a committee should be formed in consultation with our representatives to constitute an independent accountability commission through an inclusive process, develop its TORs and SOPs and notify them within 30 days.

Justice Wajihuddin further demanded that all the central and provincial office-bearers of the party should be de-notified immediately and all such persons would remain ineligible for the upcoming intra-party elections. He said interim central and provincial organisational structures should be announced, in consultation with our representatives, at the central and provincial levels.

He said the PTI Election Commission should be fully empowered and resources be made available immediately to announce a fresh intra-party election schedule. He said the membership of PTI office-bearers against whom serious allegations of corruption, misuse of authority, and manipulation of electoral and ticket allocation process exist should be suspended immediately.

He demanded that a National Reconciliation Commission should be formed to redress the grievances of ideological workers sidelined over the last few years.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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