PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party celebrated its golden jubilee on Nov 30 and claimed to have maintained its democratic stand among all political parties despite peculiar situation in the country, but its internal differences have been causing delay in completion of various organisational units in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Many of its senior people are not satisfied with the reorganisation process and they believe that despite frequent visits of co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari to KP the party is still facing internal differences as no serious efforts have been made to resolve lingering issues.

During background interviews with some of the senior party members in Peshawar it was learnt that PPP lacked discipline and sometimes decisions were taken without taking the provincial leadership on board. These members revealed on the condition of anonymity that in many cases the junior office-bearers held meetings with Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, but the provincial leadership was kept in the dark.

They said that uncertainty prevailed in the party because the aspiring candidates were demanding party tickets for different seats, but in many constituencies the party had been facing severe differences over the tickets.

Ayub Shah says internal differences to be overcome soon

In Peshawar, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA Ziaullah Afridi has joined PPP during the recent visit of Asif Zardari to the provincial metropolis. He is optimistic to get the PPP ticket for PK-I, Peshawar, but another senior activist Akbar Khan is also hopeful to get the ticket. He has recently held a meeting with the top central leadership and got the assurance in this regard.

Arbab Usman, son of former provincial minister of Awami National Party Arbab Ayub Jan, has also joined PPP with the hope to get ticket for PK-9, Peshawar, where Mohammad Sharif is also a strong candidate of the party. Mr Sharif is an old activist who had joined Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam in 2013 when PPP allotted ticket to former minister Iftikhar Jhagra. However, Sharif returned to PPP after the demise of Mr Jhagra.

Also, there are many examples of differences among candidates in the southern districts, particularly in Dera Ismail Khan, but no proper attention is paid to resolve these issues. Such differences also exist in parts of Mardan and Malakand divisions where the leadership will have to take the issues seriously otherwise PPP could lose many electable candidates.

The golden jubilee was an important occasion and the party’s organisational units had been directed to celebrate the foundation day (50 years), but reports said that workers’ response remained lukewarm and the relevant office-bearers fulfilled just the formality in this regard.

According to the senior activists, the differences had taken a serious turn due to lack of interest on part of the provincial office-bearers. Sources claimed that only provincial president Mohammad Humayun had contacts with workers, while many of the provincial level office-bearers were Islamabad-based and least bothered to visit Peshawar even for participation in the meetings.

When contacted, PPP provincial senior vice-president Syed Ayub Shah said that the leadership was busy to overcome the issues in order to win the 2018 general elections in the province. He claimed that the differences would be controlled after formation of the parliamentary board to issue tickets officially. He suggested that Mr Bilawal should visit different areas to develop personal contacts with workers.

Provincial deputy information secretary Gohar Inqilabi told this scribe that the differences would be resolved soon because suggestions in this regard had been forwarded to Mr Bilawal for approval. He clarified that the parliamentary board had not yet started the process of award of tickets for next elections.

About the delay in establishment of different wings of PPP, he said that PSF, Peoples Youth Organisation, Peoples Lawyers’ wing, etc were delayed due some internal differences. However, he said that the party chairman would announce names of the office-bearers soon.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2017