PESHAWAR: The disgruntled leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have heaved a sigh of relief with the nomination of Iqbal Zafar Jhagra as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, hoping that he will redress their grievances against the central leadership.

There are several issues being confronted by PML-N in the province and one of them is internal rifts. In past, most of the senior activists were made office-bearers at different levels, but they still remained dissatisfied. The intra-party elections are also due in PML-N for past several months, but the central leadership is yet to convene a meeting of the central and provincial councils to announce schedule for the election process.

Former governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan is also one of the senior party leaders, but the workers’ only complaint against him was that he avoided meetings with the party activists. Now the workers expect that Mr Jhagra will keep doors of the Governor’s House open for them. The annoyed people have also made their intent clear to campaign for nomination of PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah on the Senate seat and party’s central general secretary slot to be vacated by Mr Jhagra for taking charge as KP governor.

“We have not stopped our struggle for reorganisation of the party, but postponed it for some time to wait and see what Mr Jhagra has in his mind for redressal of our grievances,” said a senior annoyed leader of the party.

‘Mahtab always avoided meeting party workers’

He said that Mahtab Ahmad was also associated with PML-N, but he would avoid meeting his party people and even closed doors of the Governor’s House for them. “We will wait and see if the new governor resolves issues of the party workers. Otherwise, the activists will continue to protest for their rights,” said an insider.

Provincial vice-president Waqif Khan, who is leading the disgruntled Leaguers, said on contact that the workers had attached great expectations with the new governor and hoped that he would resolve their issues. “The first positive sign we have seen is that he (Mr Jhagra) had invited us to Islamabad soon after his nomination and assured us that all pending issues will be resolved through negotiations,” he said.

Mr Waqif confirmed that all annoyed workers wanted Sabir Shah to replace Mr Jhagra as Senate member and central secretary general of PML-N as both leaders belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that the struggle initiated by disgruntled workers was meant to make the central leadership, particularly federal ministers, realize responsibilities regarding rights of the workers. He said that presently the ministers were not even ready to see workers and listen to their complaints.

“We have been associated with PML-N for over three decades and are not against any particular person, but the drive we have launched is aimed at reorganisation of the party in the province,” Mr Waqif said. Another disgruntled leader, Abdul Sattar Khalil, said that Mr Jhagra was well aware of the problems being faced by party workers and he would resolve them soon after taking charge as governor. He also urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to allot the Senate ticket to Sabir Shah so that he could effectively solve workers’ problems in KP.

Published in Dawn, February 29th, 2016