LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Chaudhry Sarwar says the PTI has so far not been able to formulate any system that can select educated, committed and enthusiastic youth to promote them with party funding. A lot more needs to be done by the party to attract commoners.

Speaking to media persons at an iftar-dinner at a local hotel on Sunday, Mr Sarwar said in his honest opinion, he could not see common man coming up in the party. “It is possible, but there is no party policy in this direction,” he added.

Answering a question that his presence was fading out in the party leadership in the wake of new party structure and nominations, Mr Sarwar said he was no more interested in any party office.

“I had met Imran Khan a couple of days ago and told him that I am not candidate for any party office,” he said and added one should take the burden one could bear.

“I had worked hard for the party and everybody knows about it,” he said.

Mr Sarwar expressed his complete ignorance about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s funding of Rs300 million for Darul Uloom Haqqania.

“I tried to get information on the subject but could not get details,” he said and added that it was very difficult to do ‘straight’ politics in the country.

About PTI’s inclination to join hands with the PPP, Sarwar said it was the issue of political survival of everybody. He said now it was high time that all political parties sat together and decide that what should be the direction of the country. “Everything going wrong today should be plugged now,” he asserted.

Mr Sarwar regretted that it was impossible for a poor person to get justice.

Answering a question about Saaf Pani project, he said he had started the programme, when he was Punjab governor because some 100,000 children were being admitted to the Children’s Hospital alone in a year for water-borne diseases.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016