The mainstream political parties have started pondering over ways to remove internal differences and groupings and bring their workers at the same platform in order to secure maximum number of seats of national and provincial assemblies in the coming general elections in 2018.

Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf have been facing internal rifts and the central leadership is yet to take effective steps for reorganisation of the respective party.

PPP is perhaps the first one which tried many experiments for removal of its internal groupings during the past few years, but has so far failed to overcome the crisis as groupings still exist in different districts. Despite intervention by its young chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari no formula has so far proved effective to resolve the issues and therefore the party is divided in several groups in almost every district.

The party’s central leadership doesn’t seem to have full knowledge of the ground realities or it is not serious to reorganise it. Instead of taking steps in consultation with workers of relevant areas the leadership has always replaced the provincial presidents through direct nominations to reunite the groups, but such experiments never succeeded.

The latest attempt for reorganisation of PPP is the formation of coordination committees for different provinces, but the situation in KP seems to remain almost the same as the disgruntled group has rejected the coordination committee and its way of working as well.

“We are not against anyone, but want appointment of office-bearers through intra-party elections so that our workers can choose honest and dedicated people as their leaders,” said former PPP MNA Tariq Khattak.

He said that the process of intra-party election would strengthen democratic institutions. He wished to contest election to the slot of provincial president and in case anyone was nominated directly he would avoid cooperating with him.

Mr Khattak is leading the disgruntled workers of PPP in the province. Keeping in view his remarks the central leadership will have to take steps very carefully. In case, PPP’s top leadership did not take drastic steps for its reorganisation the party may face serious setback in future elections. Its workers are very vocal and vibrant who have the capacity to hold their leaders accountable or to say goodbye to their party for joining others and many of them have already parted ways with it.

Everyone knows that PTI’s vote bank has risen due to internal differences of other parties, particularly that of PPP which still faces the threat to lose more workers if differences are not removed before the next elections.

During contacts with a number of annoyed people, they claimed to be ideological workers, loyal to Bhutto’s legacy and seeking restoration of democratic culture in the party as Bhutto family and hundreds of other workers had rendered sacrifices for strengthening of democracy in the country. Majority of the workers are opposed to direct nomination of office-bearers on any seat and urge the leadership to take them on board while announcing party cabinet.

“We have stepped up efforts to remove the internal differences and enable the party to win maximum seats of the National Assembly and KP Assembly in the province in next elections,” Rahimdad Khan, head of the coordination committee, said while talking to Dawn.

Rahimdad is also former provincial president of the party and is critical of those creating rifts in the party. He said that the coordination committee would soon submit a comprehensive report to the leadership to pave the way for appointment of new office-bearers. “The committee is working on an assignment given to it by chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and it would be up to him to name any of the reasonable persons as provincial president to overcome the internal crisis,” he said.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is also facing problems and there are visible groups in the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but its leadership has so far not taken any steps for improvement of the situation. A big show of workers in the name of ‘Eid Milan’ was arranged in Peshawar on July 17 wherein PML-N central senior vice-president Engineer Amir Muqam was chief guest, but other group leaders disowned the function.

“It was not arranged by the party, but its purpose was only to create a group for Mr Muqam,” PML-N provincial general secretary Rahmat Salam Khattak reacted while talking to this scribe. He said that provincial president Pir Sabir Shah was also not invited to the event and thus he should complain about it to the central leadership as Mr Muqam being central vice-president had no right to intervene in the provincial affairs.

PML-N Peshawar district president Abdul Sattar Khalil and provincial senior vice-president Waqif Khan also admitted that there were differences in the party and the central leadership should take immediate notice of the situation otherwise the party would face problems in future.

PTI, which is in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is also facing organisational issues. The prevalence of internal crisis can easily be judged from the statements of rival groups against each other, including its female wing, which says that merit is not followed in nomination of office-bearers.

Currently, all of its units are dissolved and caretakers are running the party as it had announced intra-party elections, but the idea was postponed so as to focus on preparations for anti-government movement.

“We have the credit to hold intra-party elections to introduce democratic norms in politics. The panels for contesting elections do not mean groupings, but it is a very healthy practice to get official responsibilities through vote of workers and show performance,” MPA Shaukat Yousufzai, provincial spokesman of PTI, told Dawn.

He said that intra-party elections had been delayed due to the party’s preparation for anti-corruption movement in the country as it was a must to discourage corrupt elements in future elections.

He claimed that PTI lawmakers had initiated many development schemes to bring a real change in respective areas before new elections. The Awami National Party and Qaumi Watan Party are the main nationalist parties in KP which have recently completed their organisational units in the province for working to strengthen their folds and win maximum seats in next elections.

The religious parties face no visible differences in their ranks. Jamaat-i-Islami is in government and claims to have maintained its vote bank in particular areas. Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam is the largest party in KP Assembly after PTI with 17 MPAs, but its future depends on role of its lawmakers.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2016

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