• Acting PTI Punjab president cites ‘limited access’ to Imran, lobbying by opportunists
• Party officials say resignation not accepted, concerns to be addressed in core committee meeting today

LAHORE: PTI Punjab acting president Hammad Azhar on Thursday stepped down from his post, citing rampant lobbying and out-of-merit appointments in the party’s Punjab chapter due to his “limited access” to party founder Imran Khan.

In a strong reaction to the removal of PTI Lahore president Asghar Gujjar, Mr Azhar posted a long tweet highlighting lobbying and out-of-merit decisions and concluded by saying, “I am relinquishing the charge of the party’s Punjab presidentship”.

While Hammad Azhar, who is also the general secretary in Punjab, had remained inaccessible while in hiding, PTI sources said that Mr Azhar had relinquished the post of the PTI Punjab president. He was given this additional charge after Dr Yasmin Rashid was arrested following the May 9 protests.

The PTI leadership, however, has rejected the resignation. Core committee member Shoaib Shaheen told Dawn that General Secretary Omar Ayub Khan rejected the resignation because Mr Azhar was a valuable asset to the party.

“It has been decided to remove all concerns of Mr Azhar. He is a valuable asset of the party,” he said. Replying to a question, the PTI leader said that the core committee’s meeting has been summoned on Friday (today) to discuss the concerns of Hammad Azhar.

‘Limited access’

According to Hammad Azhar, he has limited access to party founder Imran Khan as he could not visit the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, being on the run since May 9 last year. He had earlier announced his resignation from the general secretary’s position, but continued working after it was not accepted by the party founder.

“Due to my limited access to Mr Khan, several organisational decisions were taken without my consent and largely based on one-sided lobbying with the party founder,” he said.

He said some elements in the party were conspiring to remove Asghar Gujjar from the Lahore president position “and they have actually succeeded today by dispensing wrong information to Mr Khan”.

Mr Azhar stated that Asghar Gujjar, who was appointed as Lahore president some three months ago, had remained in jail for two months and his son was still in jail. He had won the MPA’s seat from PML-N president Nawaz Sharif’s constituency as per Form 45. “I insist that Asghar Gujjar led the party from the front and mobilised workers, which no other party’s Lahore president could do,” he asserted.

He said Mr Gujjar had a key role in flash protests, worker conventions, a large protest outside Lahore Press Club and the Aug 13 rallies.

Without identifying, Mr Azhar alleged that Mr Gujjar’s rivals in the party had started bickering against him and influencing party founder Imran Khan. “Seve­ral decisions like this were taken due to limited access to Mr Khan in jail. Wrong decisions were taken with the consent of Mr Khan and several other Punjab reg­ions’ leaders are disturbed,” he asserted.

“I cannot let merit dishonour under my seal as party president. I cannot de-notify party leaders, who are performing and offering sacrifices, just because their voice is not reaching Mr Khan,” Mr Azhar explained.

He said that he had also announced his resignation sometime earlier as it would really be difficult to run party affairs without having direct access to the party founder chairman. “In such circumstances, opportunists get the benefit of their access to the founder chairman,” he said and added that the party organisation should be in the hands of those having direct access to Mr Khan.

“I am relinquishing the charge of PTI Punjab presidentship and continue working as a worker of Imran Khan,” he concluded.

PTI senior leader Ali Muhammad Khan has said that the PTI founder would surely look into the reservations expressed by Hammad Azhar. Meanwhile, sources in the party said that no new leader would be able to deliver as the incumbent government was tightening the noose around the party.

Likewise, PTI Lahore General Secr­etary Zeeshan Rasheed also announ­ced his resignation.

Separately, the PTI accepted Hafiz Farhat Abbas’ resignation from his position as parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly and appointed MPA Ali Imtiaz Warraich as PTI Punjab parliamentary party leader.

Ikram Junaidi in Islamabad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2024