PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has failed to resolve its internal differences and in a state of compulsion removed its Peshawar district president Abdul Sattar Khalil from the seat. The party also suspended his basic membership for issuing statements to media against the party leadership and damaging the party for his personal reasons.

The party’s provincial secretary information, Nasir Khan Musazai, said in a statement on Sunday that the action against Peshawar district president had been taken after mutual consultation by the provincial president Pir Sabir Shah and general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak.

Mr Khalil has been issued the notice and asked to respond in seven days otherwise his basic membership would be abolished. It was stated that the difference of opinion was part of democracy to pinpoint problems for the sake of seeking solutions to the issues.

“However, Abdul Sattar Khalil neither approached the leaders concerned for solution of the differences nor consulted the rest of office-bearers and kept issuing frequent statements against the leadership,” the spokesman said.

The problems, it said, could have been solved through dialogue, but the annoyed leader did not bother to approach the senior leaders and depended on media statements, which created unrest among the workers and caused damage to the party. Mr Khalil has also reacted very strongly to the action taken against him and announced that the annoyed workers and office-bearers would start protest demonstrations against the provincial leadership from Monday (today).

Sattar Khalil says annoyed leaders to start protest demos against provincial leadership

“We had earlier planned to hold a workers convention on Nov 26 at Hayatabad to devise our next line of action because the leadership failed to pay us attention despite repeated appeals and demands, but now the strategy has been changed,” Mr Khalil told this correspondent on Sunday. He said that he had not received any notice and got the information through media, adding that it was also unethical that instead of issuing him the notice the leadership had issued it to the media first.

“I am not alone to have differences with the leadership; there are over 50 office-bearers, many of them of provincial level, who want to launch a movement for workers rights in the province,” Mr Khalil claimed and said that the entire responsibility of any kind of damage to the party would rest with provincial general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak. “I do not call him general secretary, but he is actually ‘Gulu Butt’ of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PML-N,” he said.

Mr Khalil said that he was leading the annoyed group, but he did not commit any mistake and just raised voice for his democratic rights through media. He said that those issuing him notice were all juniors to him because he served the party for the past over 30 years and never changed loyalties despite facing hardships.

He said that the people who had always changed loyalties for personal interests had no right to talk against him as the workers knew them well. “We will start our protests by setting up a protest camp outside the Peshawar Press Club from Monday (today) daily from 11:00am to 4:00pm till Nov 30 and in the meantime we will decide our future line of action,” he said.

Mr Khalil said that he would prove soon that he was not alone and almost half of the party office-bearers in the province were behind him in the stand he took for the rights of the workers.

“I neither demanded any permit, licence and cash nor have I asked for transfer, postings, but just suggested that the party leaders in the province should be allowed to hold meetings with officials of the federal government departments in KP to focus on solution of the workers’ problems,” he explained.

He said that another demand was from the federal ministers, Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain to keep liaison with the office-bearers of relevant districts during their visits so as to discuss the problems being faced by the workers.

Similarly, he said that the central leadership should give due status to the provincial leadership. He said that there was no need to distribute cheques among internally displaced persons through Marvi Memon because Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also had senior leaders for the purpose. “If these demands are wrong I will keep raising them without any fear,” he maintained.

Published in Dawn, November 24th , 2014