RAWALPINDI: The PML-N on Saturday notified its new organisations for Rawalpindi and Jhelum. Workers have opposed the new body, urging party leaders Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah to incorporate workers in it as well.

According to the notification, Malik Umer Farooq has been appointed Rawalpindi district president and Shaukat Iqbal Janjua has been appointed general secretary. Asghar Abbas and Qazi Abdul Ghaffar Kazmi have been appointed senior vice presidents, Mohammad Tayyab and Bashir Qureshi have been appointed vice presidents and Hamid Rasheed Satti has been made joint secretary.

Sardar Naseem Khan has been named Rawalpindi metropolitan president, Haji Pervaiz Khan has been made general secretary and Mirza Mansoor is the senior vice president.

Chaudhry Mohammad Boota has been appointed Jhelum city president, Haji Nasir Mehmood Lila has been appointed general secretary and the four vice presidents are Raja Awais Khalid, Raja Qasim Ali Khan, Ijaz Janjua and Raja Shaukat.

A senior local leader and former MNA who asked not to be named said that party workers are planning to protest the new Rawalpindi district body and will meet with Ms Nawaz soon in this regard.

He said the workers were ignored in the making of this decision, as all the new office-bearers were notified without elections. He added that the PML-N lost all its seats in Rawalpindi districts because of the previous organisation’s poor performance, and the same individuals had been appointed again.

He said that although workers were rewarded for their struggle in the last three to four years, the party is still making its decisions in drawing rooms.

“Nawaz Sharif brought the PML-N out of drawing room politics, but the current leadership is making decisions to revive the old culture and the workers have opposed this,” he said.

But another local leader said there is no resentment among party workers, saying that the PML-N is united under Nawaz Sharif’s leadership and would not be a part of those who want to create rifts among workers and the leadership.

He claimed that some local leaders who wanted to lead the district had their own interests and had been in close contact with PTI leaders from the district.

He said that the present office-bearers struggled greatly in the 2018 elections and refused to bow down before those who wanted to destabilise the party.

“The PML-N received more than 500,000 votes in the district in the last elections, which speaks volumes about the party’s popularity in the region,” he said.

When contacted, former PML-N MNA Malik Shakil Awan said that the party’s decision would be accepted by all its workers and leaders, who were united under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif.

However, he admitted that workers had resentments regarding the formation of the new body, but said this was normal as the PML-N is a big party.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2020