KARACHI: Just a couple of days after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf announced restructuring its Sindh chapter and appointed new office-bearers, two of its senior leaders have stepped down from their positions, including Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, after developing differences, it emerged on Friday.

Confirming the development, a PTI spokesman cited ‘personal reasons and engagements’ for their decision to resign from party offices.

Mr Sheikh and Ali Junejo had resigned as senior vice president and vice president, respectively, from the party’s Sindh chapter.

PTI secretary-general Asad Umar earlier this week had announced the formation of a 17-member provincial body led by PTI’s Sindh president Ali Zaidi to reactive party activities ahead of Feb 26 Ghotki to Karachi march of the party.

Sources said that the formation of the provincial body did not impress many and the first reaction came from Mr Sheikh, who had been demoted from the party’s central vice president position to the same office of its Sindh chapter.

According to the PTI, Ali Palh and Arsalan Taj have been appointed additional general secretary and information secretary of party’s provincial set-up, respectively.

Apart from Mr Sheikh, the PTI also appointed Ali Bakhsh Unar, Shakoor Shad and Tahir Shah as Sindh’s senior vice presidents.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Mahmood Moulvi has been appointed as the party’s senior vice-president for Karachi division, and so have MPA Saeed Afridi and MNA Akram Cheema.

Shiraz Ali has been made additional general secretary of the Karachi set-up.

Similarly, Shahnawaz Jadoon, Adnan Ismail, Dawa Khan, Jamal Nasir, Mansoor Sheikh and Imran Shah have been notified as vice presidents, while MPA Riaz Haider, Umair Ahmed, Dr Kabeer, Murad Sheikh, Gohar Khattak, Jansher Junejo and Mushtaq Afridi as deputy general secretaries while Shahzad Qureshi, Omair Omari, Rabia Azfar and Syma Nadeem have been notified as marketing secretary, events secretary, education secretary and sports secretary.

Meanwhile, PTI Sindh president and Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi denied having differences with opposition leader Sheikh.

Talking to journalists in Hyderabad, he said he was nominated by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who could ask him to quit as a minister and he would leave without any delay.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2022