ISLAMABAD: As the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) continued its process of reorganisation, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry and Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati have been nominated as party’s senior vice-presidents.

Besides the two ministers, Khan Mohammad Jamali from Balochistan and Ameer Bukhsh Bhutto from Sindh were nominated as senior vice-presidents of the party, according to a notification issued by PTI’s secretary general Asad Umar here on Tuesday.

Mr Umar, who was appointed last month by Prime Minister Imran Khan as his party’s new secretary general with the task to re-organise the party, also nominated eight presidents, four deputy secretary generals and four joint secretaries of the PTI.

Eight nominations for party president

The nominations for PTI president are Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, Ibrahim Khan, Aftab Siddiqui, Ataullah, Atif Khan, Hamidul Haq, Naseebullah Marri and Shareef Jogezai.

PM Khan in his capacity as the party chairman had dissolved all the organisational structure across the country a week after the PTI had suffered a defeat in the first phase of the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mr Khan also nominated new office-bearers at the central and provincial levels, reviving the eight-year-old structure of the party. Mr Khan then appointed minister Umar as central secretary general in place of MNA Aamer Mehmood Kiani who has now been made party’s additional secretary general.

Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mah­mood, federal Minister for Industries and Pro­duction Khusro Bakhtiar and Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi were made presidents of the party’s central Punjab, south Punjab and Sindh chapters, respectively. Defence Minister Pervez Khattak was tasked with the responsibility to reorganise the party in Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa. Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri was nominated as PTI’s Balochistan chapter president.

After the general elections in 2013, the PTI had introduced new party structure under which Punjab and KP were divided into four regions, each with no office-bearers at the province level. Later, the same structure based on regions was maintained in the new constitution adopted by the party in 2019, while Sindh and Balochistan were also divided into four regions.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2022