PESHAWAR: After having suffered a split within its parliamentary party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf witnessed another setback on Thursday when a majority of its provincial cabinet revolted and expressed no-confidence in its leadership.

The provincial cabinet of PTI, which met at Officers’ Mess with its president Azam Swati in the chair, witnessed embarrassing situation when 15 of its members openly challenged his nomination as well as that of its provincial general secretary Khalid Masood.

An insider said that most of those in attendance boycotted the proceedings against the nomination of un-elected office-bearers of the party including the provincial president and provincial general secretary, shortly before the arrival Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

A visibly embarrassed chief minister found just a few of the cabinet members present.

Majority of members expresses no-confidence in provincial president, general secretary

Dr Nadeem Alam, focal person of the dissident group, told Dawn that there was growing grievances within the party organisations and units about the indifferent attitude of the party leadership to their problems and demands.

He said that 18 cabinet members and office-bearers had signed a document, pledging their adherence to the basic principles of the party’s constitution which prohibited the nomination of un-elected people to party positions.

He said that Mr Swati and Mr Khalid Masood were un-elected office-bearers, nominated by the party chairperson, Imran Khan, as an interim arrangement.

Mr Alam said that the party constitution clearly stated that there would not be any nominations to party positions after intra-party elections.

“One is a millionaire; the other is a retired bureaucrat. They have been parachuted into the party from the top. What concern and what understanding do they have of the grievances and problems of the party workers, party organisation and party units,” Mr Alam said.

PTI parliamentary party has already suffered a split with the emergence of what the so-called 14-member ‘like-minded group’ led by MPA Qurban Ali, which has shown serious reservation over the performance of the Khattak-led coalition government and some of its cabinet ministers and alleged corruption.

Qurban Ali has maintained that the group is not vying for cabinet slots and is struggling to uphold the lofty ideals of the party chief to bring change. That ‘change’, he argues, has not come through.

Mr Alam said that his group had the support of 18 members of the total 30-member cabinet including the ‘un-elected’ president and ‘un-elected’ general secretary. He said that the group had the majority and the Thursday’s meeting was a no-confidence in Mr Swati and Mr Masood.

He said the group had given the party leadership time until June 24 to take remedial measures; otherwise it would have no other recourse but to chart out its future line of action.

PTI provincial senior vice president and MNA, Junaid Akbar Khan, told Dawn that he did not attend the meeting because he had ‘issues’ with the chief minister. He said that he also had ‘issues’ with the way important decisions were being made without taking them into confidence.

“I have problem with the way the president and general secretary were appointed without informing us or taking us into confidence. The decisions are taken first and we are informed later. We came to know about it through television,” Mr Khan said.

Similarly, he said, the party leadership did not take them into confidence while forming the government. “Swati may be a good choice but I have issues with the way he was nominated without taking us into confidence,” he added

PTI provincial general secretary Khalid Masood, when contacted for comment, said that he was in Bannu in connection with the Waziristan IDPs issue and would respond later.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2014