PESHAWAR: One of the PML-N provincial vice presidents, Amanullah Khan, on Wednesday announced quitting the party over differences with provincial and central leadership and said he would soon join another political party in consultation with supporters.

He made the announcement during a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club in presence of dozens of PML-N office-bearers from the capital city’s various union councils and wards.

Amanullah said the PML-N had been divided into many groups and that no one was ready to accept seniority of others.

He said those, who quit the PML-Q to join the PML-N, were still named the ‘Q League’ and that both the groups had parallel organisations in each district and even in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The disgruntled PML-N leader said the party’s provincial general secretary, Rehmat Salam Khattak, had formed own group in the party in Fata.

Amanullah says he will join another party after consulting supporters

“We are not invited to the party’s provincial council meetings and it seems seniors have no place in the party any longer,” he said.

“We have been in the Pakistan Muslim League for 30 years but after there’s a split in the party, we joined the PML-Q. However, most workers led by Engineer Amir Muqam joined the PML-N in 2012 hoping to work together for strengthening the party,” he said.

Amanullah said despite working for the ‘N League’ for three years, he and many others were still considered newcomers and that they were not accepted as Muslim Leaguer and therefore, it was better to depart from the PML-N.

He said the PML-N had been in power for two years but its leadership had failed to pay heed to the workers’ problems and therefore, the leaders’ indifference had caused serious unrest and rather hatred among workers against them.

“I contested the last general elections on PML-N ticket and got around 10,000 votes but failed to serve my supporters as the party leaders did not give me time even in Islamabad to share with them the workers’ problems,” he said.

The disgruntled PML-N leader said the area he represented was rural and mostly violence-hit and that hundreds of people were killed in terrorist acts during the past some years but the government didn’t compensate the affected families.

Accusing the provincial and central leadership of the party of neglecting workers, he said it seemed the party had nothing to do with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where unemployment incidence was very high and the people faced serious economic problems.

He said 80 percent of the PML-N people were unhappy in rural areas of Peshawar, who were likely to part ways with the party sooner or later.

“Several leaders of different political parties, including ANP, PTI, JI and JUI-F, have approached us for joining their parties but we have yet to take any decision,” he said.

He said there were chances that he would go to ANP as the PTI leaders were least bothered to talk to them seriously but he would decide about it after consulting supporters.

“We contacted PTI’s Shah Farman but he did not respond seriously,” he said.

When contacted, PML-N provincial general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak said there was no grouping in the party.

He, however, said he was against replacement of senior office-bearers without reason.

“I’ve never given anyone the impression of old and new worker. Amanullah is a hard worker. I like him the most among all those came from the Q League,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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