Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is all set to hold phase-wise intraparty elections next year, with election of party chief to be held in March, Pakistan Today has learnt.
A well placed source told this scribe that the party’s top leadership would meet today (Monday) to discuss what he called “a beefy agenda”, with party polls at the top of the list.
The meeting would be attended by over 150 central and provincial leaders including members of the party’s Advisory Council, wherein important decisions will be taken keeping in view the party’s recent performance in the local government elections.
The source said that significant decisions regarding the party’s membership and organisational elections will also be taken, as at present there are differences of opinion on the issue of intraparty elections.
During the meeting, the results of local body polls would also be reviewed. Provincial organisers of Punjab and Sindh have been asked to submit detailed reports pertaining to the local body polls to the party leadership.
“The party will initiate an aggressive membership campaign since the LG polls are over, as PTI’s election commission has already completed the arrangements in this regard,” the source said.
The PTI chairman last Saturday held an important meeting with the party’s election commission in this regard, the source added.
The source said that after completion of the membership campaign, the party would hold intraparty polls.
”In the first phase of the elections, which is expected in the coming March, party members will elect the chairman,” the source said.
He said that following the first phase, elections would be held for the slots of the party’s provincial presidents and afterwards, presidents at the district level would be elected.
The source added that it was a rather long process, which would be completed by July next year.
The recent defeat in the local bodies elections may have been a wake-up call for the PTI leadership to reorganise the party and revisit their strategy. Except for local government elections in the federal capital where PTI went toe to toe with the ruling PML-N, the party fared poorly in all three phases of the LG polls in both Sindh and Punjab.
–HAMID KHAN WAZIR
