Dismissed Saturday as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) organiser for Rawalpindi’s NA-56 constituency, Fiazul Hassan Chohan released a video Sunday addressing party chief Imran Khan, alleging corruption in the party.
Khan had removed three leaders from their party positions in Punjab.
A notification released by Khan said, “In consultation with the national organiser, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the organiser NA-56 Rawalpindi Fiazul Hassan Chohan, district organiser Rahim Yar Khan Rana Raheel and district organiser Dera Ghazi Khan Ahmed Ali Dareshak have been relieved of their duties with an immediate effect for violating the party discipline in connection with the distribution of tickets for the local government elections.”
In Rawalpindi, Fiazul Hassan Chohan had distributed party tickets in NA-56 ─ Imran Khan’s constituency ─ without consulting the party leadership, which created unrest among many old workers who lodged complaints with the chairman, according to the party statement.
On Thursday, Awami Muslim League (AML) president Sheikh Rashid and PTI former district president Ijaz Khan Jazi had jointly announced their party candidates in the NA-55 constituency. PTI was supposed to issue tickets to the candidates in 19 seats of NA-56 on Friday.
But the situation took an ugly turn when NA-56 party organiser Fiazul Hassan Chohan issued tickets to the candidates on his own. The move forced the party leadership to suspend Mr Chohan from the posts of the organiser and party deputy information secretary.
Taking oath upon the Holy Quran, Chohan says, “My reputation has been tainted by Shaikh Rashid, who has never been loyal to anyone till today. He used your name to play politics. He is one of those who have used your name and the PTI’s name to earn crores of Rupees and has not done anything except corruption.”
Chohan claimed his innocence against charges of accepting cash and gratuities while distributing tickets for the recently-held local government elections in Punjab and added that the PTI chairman had removed him from his post without hearing his side of the story.
He appealed to Khan to meet him and said, “I will tell you what happened over the past four months, the last year and a half, and all the ways in which the politics of the PTI has been shredded to bits in NA-56.”
MPA Arif Abbasi of the PTI had earlier confirmed to Dawn that the tickets were issued by Chohan without consulting the party leadership. He said the PTI was considering contacting the Pakistan Election Commission (PTI) to get the tickets issued for 19 seats in NA-56 cancelled but the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations had already expired.
He said two boards had been constituted ─ one led by Sheikh Rashid and the other comprising PTI leaders ─ to select the candidates in Rawalpindi.
Mr Abbasi said the party wanted to issue tickets in NA-56 to workers and those who had actively worked during the PTI sit-in and decided not to share seats with the AML or Jamaat-i-Islami.