PTI’s intra-party polls will be an eyewash

The intra-party election of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is going to be a dummy exercise and merely an eyewash because a very weak panel, consisting of unknown faces, is contesting against the Imran Khan-led Insaf panel.

According to the details, the voters will participate in the intra-party polls by sending a text message from their mobile phones and the time of voting will start at midnight on Saturday and the voting will remain open for 48 hours.

“We have more than 2.7 million voters and they will receive a text message from the PTI secretariat having details of both the panels. The voters will have to select only one option,” Chief Election Commissioner of PTI Senator Azam Khan Swati said. He was talking to a group of journalists on Friday in Lahore.

There are two panels taking part in the intra-party polls and the voter will have to reply to the text message they will receive by choosing on the options, 1 and 2, of their favourite group. It is believed that by a fair margin, the favourite group will be the one that is being headed by Imran Khan himself.

“I request all the voters to strictly adhere to the procedure, otherwise, their precious vote will be wasted,” Sawati said, while urging all the voters not to write anything except taking the option of 1 or 2 in their text messages.

INSAF PANEL:

Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi (Chairman), Shah Mehmood Qureshi (Vice Chairman), Jahangir Khan Tareen (Secretary General), Dr Arif Rehman Alvi (President Sindh), Yar Muhammad Rind (President Balochistan), Ishaq Khan Khakwani (President South Punjab), Abdul Aleem Khan (President Central Punjab), Aamir Mehmood Kiyani (President North Punjab), Faiz Ullah Kamoka (President West Punjab), Ali Amin Gandapur (President South Region KPK), Shah Farman (President Peshawar Region KPK), Mehmood Khan (President Malakand Region KPK), Zar Gul Khan (President Hazara Region KPK), Raja Khurram Nawaz (Islamabad Region).

EHTISAB PANEL:

Naik Muhammad Khan (Chairman), Syed Aftab Shah (Vice Chairman), Dr Shahzad Waseem (Secretary General), Raja Azhar Khan (President Sindh), Sardar Khadim Hussain Wardak (President Balochistan), Muhammad Ibrahim Khan (President South Punjab), Mansha Sindhu (President Central Punjab), Yusaf Khattak (President North Punjab), Abdur Rehman Rana (President West Punjab), Zia ullah Bangash (President South Region KPK), Syed Abdul Saboor Shah (President Peshawar Region KPK), Abdul Munim Khan (President Malakand Region KPK), Abdul Haque Khan (President Hazara Region KPK), Raja Qaiser Ghaffar (President Islamabad Region).

Interestingly, the voters cannot elect any candidate in the individual capacity as he will have to pick the whole panel and it is highly likely that the voter will prefer to select the panel of Imran Khan. It is worth mentioning here that all the mainstream leaders who are calling the shots currently in the PTI are included in the panel led by Imran Khan as Jahangir Khan Tareen, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Aleem Khan, Arif Alvi and some other mainstream leaders of PTI are contesting from the Insaf Panel.

When a journalist asked the Chief Election Commissioner of PTI Azam Swati that why a voter cannot select the person of his choice irrespective of the panel, he said that the party is conducting the intra-party elections in a hurry and these gaps would be addressed next time.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Election Commission of Pakistan has directed all the provincial election commissioners not to allot the ‘bat’ election symbol to PTI because of not holding the intra-party elections. “As the election for a provincial assembly seat PS-114 from Sindh is inching closer we want to get back our election symbol on urgent basis,” Swati said.