- Show-cause notice issued to Khan blames him for falling number of supporters; highlights cronyism and nepotism displayed by party chief
Founding members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday held a press conference during which they served a show cause notice to party Chairman Imran Khan for “leading the party astray from its founding principles”.
Several founding members of the party led by Akbar Babar addressed the press conference.
In the show cause notice to party chief, they said: “We, the founding members of the PTI sacrificed the best years of our lives to bring change in Pakistan. We have come together today after painfully watching for over four years the transformation of the party of change to a party of the status quo.
“To gain public trust, you made repeated public and private commitments to never to compromise on principles. We believed in you and stood shoulder to shoulder for over a decade at great personal cost.
“Ever since that historic moment in October 2011, the promised ‘Change’ has been compromised for power politics at the cost of Justice, Transparency, and Accountability, the founding principles of PTI. The KP PTI government has performed no better or worse from other political parties. As a result, most PTI supporters feel betrayed. The loss of PTI candidates in the recent bye-elections is a ready indicator to the nose diving popularity of the party.”
The show cause included Khan’s refusal to allow unfettered third party forensic audit in 2013. It also included Khan’s refusal to act against culprits that rigged intra party elections. The individuals include but are not limited to; Jahangir Tareen, Pervaiz Khattak, Aleem Khan, Nadir Leghari, Saifullah Niazi and Dr. Arif Alvi. Instead of taking action against them, you suspended the membership of Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed sending a message that transparency and accountability in PTI is at your whims.
Khan’s refusal to implement the orders of the PTI Election Tribunal and continued to make illegal appointments in gross violation of the letter and spirit of the Tribunal Orders was also mentioned in the notice.
The notice went on to point out cronyism and nepotism shown by Khan
“On the NA- 1 Peshawar seat vacated by you, you approved the award of the party ticket to a person of known poor repute, Gul Badshah who is now in jail for allegedly selling fake Afghan refugee identity cards.
“The sole criteria for the award of three Senate tickets to Nauman Wazir, Mohsin Aziz, and Samina Abid were their personal relationship with you and their reported funding of SKMT and/or PTI. Not one of them contributed a single day for the cause of PTI ever since its inception.
“You appointed Yusuf Ayub as the PTI Organizer KPK despite his conviction and de-seating as an MPA on fake degree charges by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He continues to receive your patronage as he campaigned with you on stage during the recent Haripur by-elections. Your letter of support to Aleem Khan is a public confession of conflict of interest whereby you justify your decision to award a ticket in return for his donations to SKMT and PTI completely destroying the very concept of merit. You and your family are reported to have accepted gifts worth millions of rupees from individuals that you continue to patronize in the party despite serious allegations of corruption against them.”
The notice went on to state:
“In view of the compelling evidence against you we, the founding members, are left with no other option except to publicly challenge you on your actions that is destroying the symbol of hope for the country.
“We also demand an independent Inquiry Commission to investigate the charges leveled against you. And, to facilitate an independent inquiry, we demand that you temporarily step aside as the Chairman of the party.
“In case you decide to do none of the above, it would imply acceptance of guilt which would force us to call a national conference of all ideologically committed PTI members to finalize a strategy of launching a movement for internal PTI reform.”