The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), in blatant contrast to its claims of championing the cause of democracy, has totally negated not only set democratic norms but also its own constitution in reorganising the party at the district level, as all district presidents and secretaries general in four provinces were not elected through balloting, but were chosen by the PML-N’s top brass in closed-door meetings, causing considerable disquiet to party workers.
A source in the PML-N told Pakistan Today that almost all district presidents and secretaries general in the four provinces were first nominated by the party’s respective provincial coordination committees, and later their names were approved by the PML-N central organising committee, which met in Lahore from June 30 to July 2 under the chairmanship of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
“All district presidents and secretaries general were ‘selected’ by provincial coordination committees of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh and Balochistan headed by Shahbaz Sharif, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Saleem Zia and Khuda-e-Noor, respectively,” said the source. The source said that the selection of the party’s office-bearers at the district level without balloting had caused a rift in the party at the local level, where a number of diehard workers had threatened to part ways with the Nawaz-led faction of the Muslim League.
PML-N central leader from KP Sar Anjam Khan has also resigned from the party’s basic membership because of differences with the party’s top command on the reorganisation process. Anjaam told Pakistan Today that the PML-N top command had sabotaged all democratic traditions in the party’s reorganisation.
“No elections were held and the people who were ineligible to become district presidents were selected for the slots on the basis of whom PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s liked personally,” he said, adding that he and a number of his associates would soon take the decision to join another political party, such as the PML-Quaid or the PML-Likeminded.
Anjam said according to the party’s constitution, anyone who had not served the party for 10 years could not become a district president. “But in some districts, those people were made presidents who had just joined the party a few months ago,” he claimed. When contacted, PML-N’s Balochistan Coordination Committee Convenor Khuda-e-Noor confirmed that no district president in Balochistan had won intra-party elections, and they had all been nominated by the party’s provincial coordination committee and approved by the PML-N central organising committee.
“We had nominated these men for the party’s district presidents and secretaries general on March 14, 2011. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif approved the provincial coordination committee’s nominations on July 2 at the party’s central organising committee meeting in Lahore,” he said. Noor said he was facing strong protest from party workers in Balochistan. “I receive hundreds of calls from various parts of the province in which [party workers] question nominations and raise objections against the lack of balloting in the election of district presidents.
In principle, district presidents and secretaries general should have been elected by the office-bearers of the party’s union and tehsil bodies through polls,” he added. He said disgruntled PML-N workers in the current scenario would either part ways with the party or refrain from taking full interest in party affairs. The PML-N’s constitution, in its 6th chapter, says on intra-party elections that the party shall hold elections at all levels in a free and fair manner and by secret balloting.
On eligibility, it says that any member of the Electoral College may contest the elections for the offices for which the Electoral College is constituted. For elections at district level, the constitution says that the District Election Commission shall organise and conduct elections at the district and local level. “Each such Commission consisting of five members shall be appointed by the Working Committee of the respective Provincial Muslim League and at least two of its members shall be from outside the District concerned. The existing office-bearers of Provincial and Central Muslim League and the candidates for any District and local organization of the party shall not eligible to become members of the Commissions,” it adds.
Sindh Coordination Committee Convenor Saleem Zia also confirmed that no voting was held to elect district presidents and secretaries generals. “District Coordination Committees had proposed five names each for the two slots from each district, and the provincial coordination committee selected two names which were later approved by the central organising committee of the PML-N,” he said.
