PTI looks to add new blood

• Khan says PTI first political party to conduct intra-party polls twice
• Says party has overcome difference of opinion over modus operandi for party polls
• Thanks army chief for providing land for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Karachi

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday formally announced the party’s membership drive, claiming that PTI is going to be the first ever political party in the world conducting membership drive through mobile phones.

Speaking at a membership camp set up by PTI Election Commission in Thomir, the PTI chairman said that the party’s membership drive will be the largest ever membership campaign by any political party, which will turn the PTI into the most democratic party in the country.

PTI Central Secretary Information Naeemul Haq, Secretary Election Commission PTI Lt Col (r) Khalid Zahoor along with PTI Chairmen Raja Khurram Nawaz and Ali Nawaz Awan attended the event.

Khan said that the membership campaign will continue for one month after which intra-party elections will be held, wherein party workers will get the opportunity to choose their leaders through direct party elections.

The PTI chairman said that PTI is going to be the first ever political party in the country to conduct intra-party polls for the second time, adding the rest of the political parties should follow suit so as to end the monarchy in their parties.

Rejecting the impression of differences over the PTI Chief Election Commission Tasneem Noorani, Imran Khan said that there was difference of opinion over the modus operandi for the intra-party polls but these were sorted out amicably.

He said that PTI hired experts and took six months for preparations so as to avoid the mistakes made in the first intra-party polls.

Lashing out at other political parties, the PTI chairman said that genuine leadership and meritocracy could crop up only through intra-party polls, which unfortunately is avoided by all political parties’ leadership, as they fear that their family members may not win the coveted posts through intra-party polls.

He said that the response of the people to PTI’s membership drive is quite satisfactory and so far over one million people have registered themselves as PTI members. He urged other political parties to conduct membership campaigns too.

During his address, he thanked Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif for providing land for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Karachi, vowing that people of Sindh will soon have a state-of-the-art cancer hospital.

Talking about the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Imran Khan said that the leaders of both Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) appointed the NAB chairman with consensus but now they were hell-bent on cutting the powers of the Bureau.

He went on to say that the corrupt rulers never allowed the establishment of an independent accountability system; because it hurts their interest. That is why, he said, the two parties are joining hands to make the NAB a redundant institution.

Giving example of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Ehtesab Commission, Imran Khan said that the KP Ehtesab Commission is free and independent to arrest anyone who is corrupt without any fear.

Khan said that a lawyer’s committee has been constituted under his chairmanship to review the amendments made in the KP Ehtesab Commission, vowing that all them amendments creating hurdles in the way of free and fair accountability would be removed so that justice can take place without any favour or fear.

Locals of the area gifted a cow to the PTI chairman on his visit to their locality.