PESHAWAR: The defeat in local government elections deepened crisis in provincial chapter of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawz as its general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak admitting his failure and tendered resignation from his seat to set an example for other office-bearers to follow suit.

The issues pertaining to the local government elections and leg pulling in the party also prompted PML-N provincial secretary information Nasir Khan Musazai to resign from the membership of board of directors, Peshawar Electric Supply Company.

Apparently both the leaders have tried to hide what reservations actually they have. Mr Khattak has openly admitted that he resigned from the party office to acknowledge that his nominees could not succeed in the local government elections and later in the re-polling at some stations.

“There is no justification for me to hold the party office when my candidates have failed to win the elections. I want to set an example that those, who fail to come up to the expectation of workers, should step down,” he told this correspondent.

Rehmat Salam and Nasir Khan resign from party office and Pesco BoD respectively

Mr Khattak said that he was a worker and would remain loyal to the party leadership but could no longer run the affairs as general secretary. He avoided sharing any information about internal crisis in the party, saying that PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah, Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan and PML-N senior vice president Eng Amir Muqam contacted him and asked the reasons behind his resignation. “I have submitted my resignation for acceptance,” he added.

Similarly, Mr Musazai said that he resigned as member of Pesco BoD because the line losses were on the rise and he alone could not control it. He said that it was better for him to resign from the membership of Pesco BoD.

However, some other senior leaders in the party told Dawn that maximum of the party office-bearers were disappointed with the cold response of the leadership towards the organisational problems in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The party, they said, was divided into various factions and every leader was trying to approach the leadership for personal gains while the low rank office-bearers and common workers had no status in the party.

The source said that Mr Khattak’s resignation was an example for all the leaders, who lost the local government elections. They said that all key leaders of the party including central general secretary Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, provincial president Pir Sabir Shah, Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan and many others failed to win the local government elections in their respective areas.

Of the PML-N leaders, Amir Muqam is stated to be more effective as he won the local government elections in his home district Shangla and also managed to form district government in Swat and in its all tehsils.

Sources said that Mr Musazai also resigned owing to some ‘other’ reasons. He is provincial secretary information of the party but his entire focus is on his constituency NA-4 (mostly rural areas of Peshawar). He succeeded to win maximum seats in Town-4 (one of the four towns of Peshawar) to form local government there.

The workers always said that Mr Musazai won the elections because he, as member of Pesco BoD, served the power consumers and people supported his nominees in the elections. By tendering resignation, he wanted to brush aside the assumption that he used Pesco resources for a limited purpose and won the local government elections, they added.

“Musazai has just sent his resignation to Pesco BoD chairman but PML-N Peshawar district president Abdul Sattar Khalil has started lobbying to get the post. It is a live example that everyone is serving his own interests,” sources said.

Sources also referred to the party’s success in Swat and Shangla and said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had gave full authority to Amir Muqam to get the problems of workers related to Pesco, SNGPL and NHA resolved. So, he won the elections, they added.

Sources said that Pir Sabir Shah had also many reservations as he was not given due attention as provincial president by the central leadership. “For the time being situation is not clear but it seems that central leadership may replace some of the key office-bearers in the province,” sources said.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2015

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