Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s top guns will join heads today (Monday) to give the final finishing touches to the modus operandi of how the much-talked-about intra-party polls will be held.
According to the details, PTI Chairman Imran Khan will chair the meeting to be held here in Bani Gala, wherein important decisions will be taken pertaining to the intra-party elections.
The polls are likely to be held in March and April. Sources said that Imran Khan would do away with all the party’s portfolios prior to the intra-party polls.
Moreover, during the meeting, modalities will be thrashed out to ensure that free, fair and transparent in-party polls are conducted, to avoid the repetition of the mistakes committed in the previous party polls, they added.
However, prior to the intra-party polls the party membership campaign will begin in January and February.
It is expected that the intra-party polls will be held phase-wise and elections will be held in the first phase in KP, which most likely be held in March, while in Punjab and Sindh the polls would be held in April, which would be followed by Balochistan, they added.
Sources said that the party was earlier divided on whether to hold intra-party polls. Some were in favour of the polls while others feared that fresh polls might further damage the party. However, Khan was adamant that the polls would be held at all costs, so eventually the party leadership had to accept his decision and decided to hammer out the much-needed strategy to ensure transparent polls.
Moreover, a meeting of PTI’s six-member committee was held with Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the chair at the party’s central secretariat on Sunday.
Sources said that the committee examined the contents of the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2016 tabled by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the National Assembly on Friday, seeking implementation of a four-year amnesty scheme that proposes that traders be allowed to whiten their undeclared profit and gains by paying a nominal tax.
Other members of the PTI committee are Jahangir Tareen, Asad Umar, Dr Shireen Mazari, Shibli Faraz and Senator Nauman Wazir.
The committee expressed serious reservations over the bill, which the government had introduced without consulting opposition parties. However, it was decided in principle that instead of taking a solo flight on the issue, opposition parties, including PPP, Mutahidda Qaumi Movement and the Jamaat-e-Islami, would be taken into confidence to adopt a joint stance on the matter.
The committee minutely reviewed the contents of the bill and decided to seek the input of other opposition parties on the matter so that they could take a united stance in parliament. In this regard, the committee’s members will meet Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah on Monday to evolve a joint strategy, which can give a tough time to the government.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Friday categorically announced that the party would ‘strongly oppose’ the scheme, which, according to him, had been introduced to whiten the money of the ‘ruling elite’ and would only further penalise honest taxpayers.