MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 17: Workers of the governing Peoples Party called a private meeting on Sunday, at which they accused their leader, AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, of damaging the party in the interests of preserving his own power.

The meeting, held at the home of Syed Karamat Shah Kazmi, gave party workers a chance to air their complaints against Chaudhry Abdul Majeed.

He was accused of “bad governance and rampant corruption”.

Many PPAJK workers felt that, to preserve his own position, he was weakening the party by giving preferential treatment to workers of the PML-N and the Muslim Conference.

“The longer Chaudhry Majeed stays in power," a worker said, “the more damage our party will suffer.”

Several local leaders were invited to the meeting, including Sultan Mahmood, a barrister and former premier of AJK.

Recalling his own period as the region’s leader, Mahmood said that it was support from his party that enabled him to hold on through four changes of government in Islamabad. “The incumbent prime minister seems unbothered by your concerns,” he told workers, who asked him to step in on their behalf in light of their complaints about Chaudhry Majeed.

Mahmood said that he had been consistently voicing concerns about “large-scale corruption” in the AJK government.

He added that he had been keeping President Asif Ali Zardari abreast of the situation in Kashmir, “and will not stop doing so”. Party workers decided to hold another private meeting on February 26, at the home of PPAJK vice president Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, before organising a public meeting, on March 6, at which Sultan Mahmood will be their chief guest.