PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has recently announced to launch online membership of workers to reorganise the party and pave the way for intra-party election in the province.

The winning of a provincial assembly seat in Dir in the by-election has encouraged the party office-bearers to initiate the process for reorganisation, but there have been no serious consultations in this regard.

Party’s provincial president Khan Zada Khan’s statements about the online membership and intra-party elections are appearing frequently, but it seems mere eyewash to dodge workers who have been raising voice for holding intra-party elections.

Though PPP is facing serious internal differences, it has a vote bank while most of its people are illiterate who may not be able to register themselves through the online membership process and will definitely remain deprived of the process.


Some leaders say only senior workers should be registered in first phase


There is no schedule and criterion for the membership and both the seniors and juniors will be in the same category. A number of senior activists of the party, when contacted, said that they did not know about the process as the party was yet to notify it in the districts.

However, PPP provincial general secretary Engineer Humayun Khan said that intra-party elections in five districts, including Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Malakand Agency, Swabi and Mardan would be held on priority basis in the first phase.

“We will form organising committees with the approval of the party chairman to finalise arrangements for the intra-party elections. Farhatullah Babar and Aurangzeb Burki will monitor the election process to remove the flaws for the next phase,” Mr Khan said on Saturday while talking to Dawn.

He said that PPP was in the process of revival and winning of the PK-93 Dir seat in by-elections was a live example that it had roots in masses. “We spent 14 days in Dir, motivated our workers and they managed to win the seat with a big margin,” he said. The PPP, he said, had also won one provincial assembly seat in Chitral district in by-elections which meant that people had respect for the party.

When contacted by this correspondent on Saturday another senior but annoyed leader, Syed Ayub Shah, said that the online membership process could not be materialised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that the party leadership should remove the differences, implement the party manifesto in real sense and register only the senior workers in the first phase.

“The online membership will multiply the problems.

The intra-party elections can be processed through ‘controlled democracy’ to register the workers on basis of seniority of at least 10 years,” he suggested.

Mr Shah proposed that the process of membership should be initiated at the union council or ward level to include the senior workers in the lists.

It is true that PPP has won a seat in the by-elections in Dir, but it does not mean that PPP has increased its vote bank. There are several factors which benefited the PPP candidate. Jamaat-i-Islami still has a vast vote bank in the area which can easily be judged from the local government elections.

So far JI has lost this seat only once when PML-N leader Malik Jahanzeb had won it, who later became social welfare minister. This time it is good fortune of PPP that it is a part of the tripartite alliance with the PML-N, ANP and JUI-F, who openly campaigned for its candidate and helped him win the seat.

Maximum of the voters in PK-93 Dir belongs to two main tribes of Sultankhel and Paindakhel and JI has a strong vote bank in the area. PPP and JI are the two main rivals in Dir, but the former has always fallen prey to internal rifts and negligence on part of its former elected representatives.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2015

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