PESHAWAR: After the announcement for the party’s reorganisation at different levels in the province, senior PML-N leaders have begun intense lobbying to get key positions in the new provincial and district cabinets.

Under the PML-N’s constitution, the intra-party elections were to be held before Dec 2015 but that didn’t happen and thus, spreading unrest among activists.

The office of PML-N central general secretary has been lying vacant since the appointment of Iqbal Zafar Jhagra as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor around eight months ago.

Also, the party is divided into two major groups at the provincial level with each of them holding separate worker conventions.


Party split with one group led by Sabir Shah and other by Amir Muqam


On the paper, Pir Sabir Shah is the PML-N provincial president but in actual fact, he has no control on party affairs. PML-N central vice president Amir Muqam, who is also adviser to the prime minister, is calling the shots in the province. The two groups don’t attend each other’s events.

Similarly, the office-bearers, including members of central and provincial councils, too, have differences with every group claiming to have majority of activists for the election of the people of their choice.

Amir Muqam had joined the PML-N in April 2012. He was later appointed the central senior vice president to the party.

Many in the party believe Amir Muqam has focused his attention on the expansion of the party in the province and thus, upsetting old guards.

Ahead of the party’s reorganisation, both Amir Muqam and Pir Sabir Shah are intensely lobbying for the provincial president’s slot for themselves.

According to Leaguers, internal strife is a major reason of the party suffering electoral setbacks in the province and that the election or nomination of new office-bearers could help control the damage.

Despite differences, the workers of both groups have one thing in common: they are not satisfied with the performance of the federal government and complain no mega development scheme has been initiated in the province since the formation of Nawaz Sharif government in the centre two years ago.

The PML-N central council is slated to meet in Islamabad on Oct 17 and 18 to name the party’s office-bearers at central level. There will follow the nominations at the provincial level.

The strength of the PML-N’s provincial council is around 350 with the two groups striving to get their nominees elected to at least three seats of provincial president, general secretary and information secretary.

“We are not ready to support Pir Sabir Shah for another term as the party’s provincial president. This time around, Amir Muqam should be given the chance to head the party to steer it out of crisis and thus, enabling it to perform well in the next general elections,” PML-N provincial information secretary Nasir Khan Musazai told Dawn.

However, provincial PML-N senior vice president Waqif Khan insisted Mr. Muqam should better work as the party’s senior vice president and support Pir Sabir Shah as the provincial chief.

There are also reports that current PML-N provincial general secretary Rahmat Salam Khattak has a keen desire to become the party’s central general secretary.

Insiders said the party would distribute provincial seats equally to leaders of both Pakhtun and Hazara belts.

Senior politician, Saranjam Khan of Mardan, has also served the party as central general secretary. A source said the central leadership had offered former KP governor, Mahtab Ahmad Khan, the general secretary’s position in the new set-up but he declined.

He said if Amir Muqam was made the provincial president, the general secretary’s office would go to Pir Sabir Shah.

The source said MPA Arbab Waseem, Engineer Farooq and provincial vice president Ikhtiar Wali were likely to be in the running for the provincial general secretary. Arbab Khizar Hayat has also announced candidacy for the provincial president’s office in case the name of Pir Sabir Shah is dropped.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2016

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