SWABI: Differences have surfaced in the local chapter of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf as the influential Tarakai family has accused the party’s district president of being responsible for PTI’s defeat in the local body polls in Swabi.

The rift will have far-reaching impact on the party’s performance in the district, where it had won all the national and provincial assembly seats in the 2018 elections.

Biland Iqbal, an uncle of minster for elementary and secondary education Shahram Khan Tarakai, who suffered defeat in the election for the Razaar tehsil chairman slot during the first phase of the local body polls, alleged in a social media video on Saturday that there were many in the PTI, who were working against its interests.

It is to mention here that Mr Shahram, his father, Senator Liaqat Khan Tarakai and uncles MNA Usman Khan Tarakai and MPA Mohammad Ali Tarakai had merged their Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan into PTI in 2015.

While referring to PTI district president Anwar Haqdad Khan, Mr Biland said the PTI leader did not participate in the local body elections. He accused Mr Haqdad of sitting at home while the campaign for local body polls continued. Mr Biland said he would bring to fore all the thieves in the party.

It is not the first time that a member of the Tarakai family has criticised the ruling party leaders. Earlier, Mohammad Ali Tarakai had accused the then chief minister Pervez Khattak of running the party business as he wished.

When contacted, Anwar Haqdad said his family would continue to work for the party with devotion and determination. Another local PTI leader on condition of anonymity said election of Mr Haqdad as the party’s district president had not gone down well with the Tarakai family. “The Tarakai family wants to run the party as per its whims,” he claimed.

JUI-F: A former district councillor, Mr Abdullah, and a large number of workers quit the PTI and joined Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl at a public meeting held in Baja village on Saturday, dealing a blow to the party in the home town of PTI MPA Rangaiz Khan.

Maulana Fazal Ali, a former provincial education minister, and various other leaders spoke on the occasion, claimed the PTI would face people’s wrath over its failed policies.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2022