ISLAMABAD: A recently constituted 69-member advisory council of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf gave a go-ahead on Thursday for reorganisation of the party, notably in Punjab, after the PTI decided to welcome politicians from other parties in its fold.

The council, which met here at a hotel with PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the chair, also decided to return the salary of its members of the National Assembly for the period they didn’t attend the assembly proceedings because of the sit-in last year.

Talking to Dawn, a couple of participants of the meeting said reorganisation of the party in Punjab and Sindh topped the agenda. The participants expressed satisfaction over what they claimed the increasing popularity of the party in the two provinces.

Punjab, by virtue of being the main electoral battleground, remained the focus of attention during the meeting, said one of the participants. Many party leaders from Punjab informed the leadership that politicians of other parties were willing to join the PTI.

PTI MNAs to return their salary for the period they didn’t attend the NA during the party’s sit-in

“Most of the aspirants who want to become part of the PTI are from the PPP. Politicians of the former ruling party are so keen to join the PTI that we are in a fix whether to accept all of them because in such an event our old party loyalists feel threatened,” a senior PTI leader told Dawn.

With former Punjab governor Mohammad Sarwar handling the PTI’s organisation in Punjab, the party decided to accept in its fold those politicians who had a clean track record and for this purpose different committees had been set up, the PTI leader said.

Talking to journalists after the meeting, Imran Khan defended the entry of politicians, particularly belonging to the PPP, into the PTI. “Fed up with the politics of compromise PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari and the PML-N are playing, ideological workers of Bhutto’s party who want justice in society are joining the PTI and I welcome them.”

Happy over the expansion of the party in Punjab, he said the good news was that people were joining the PTI in those districts where it was weak.

Over the past few weeks, a number of former PPP lawmakers, including ministers, have joined the PTI. Prominent among them are a former minister of state for information Samsam Bokhari and former housing minister Tariq Anees. They joined the PTI along with scores of their followers.

Even on Thursday, at least 12 PPP leaders from Gujranwala announced their decision to join the PTI.

RESIGNATION OF KP MINISTER: The PTI chairman said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Mines and Minerals Ziaullah Afridi would have to resign after his arrest by the provincial accountability commission. But in the same breath, he said Mr Afridi had rendered services for the party and after securing clearance from the commission, he could get back to his ministry.

Using the precedent to burnish credentials of his party’s government in KP, Mr Khan said this showed true autonomy of the provincial accountability commission. At the same time, he accused the National Accountability Bureau of protecting the corrupt. No accountability was possible as long as the PPP and PML-N joined hands and NAB was working only to protect their interests, he alleged.

INQUIRY COMMISSION: The PTI chairman reiterated that his party would accept in letter and spirit whatever the findings the poll inquiry commission gave about alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.

However, he expressed the hope that with the kind of evidence the PTI had presented before the commission, “I have no doubt that our point of view that the last elections were rigged in a planned manner will be proven true.”

Mr Khan again said he believed the next general elections would be held this year.

In reply to a question, he said that because of excessive politicisation of Karachi police they had failed to bring peace to the city. Therefore, he added, Rangers were the only solution at the moment.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015

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