LANDI KOTAL, Nov 19: Differences have cropped up in Khyber Agency chapter of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as top slot of the party has become a bone contention among local leaders.

The differences deepened when Hazrat Wali, who claims to be president of PPP in Khyber Agency, dissolved all the three tehsil cabinets of the party and said that new cabinets would be formed by December 15.

“There is dearth of discipline among the lower cadres and party workers in Khyber Agency as the previous cabinet miserably failed to organise the party at grassroots level,” he told Dawn when asked about dissolution of PPP local cabinets.

He said that his predecessor failed to organise party workers, who had either parted ways with PPP and joined other political parties or remained dormant owing to inefficiency of the former cabinet.

Mr Wali claimed that the decision to elevate him to the position of PPP president in Khyber Agency was taken at a meeting that was presided over by PPP Fata chief organiser Malik Waris Khan Afridi.

He said that the meeting was attended by a large number of party workers. “The meeting was in fact requisitioned by party workers as the previous cabinet was reluctant to hold fresh elections in the agency,” he said.Mr Wali said that besides forming new cabinets for Jamrud, Bara and Landi Kotal, he would woo all disgruntled party workers. “Our main objective is to strengthen the party at tehsil level and prepare for the next general elections,” he said.

He said that a notification regarding his appointment as president would be issued soon by party central leadership as it was a constitutional obligation. Strongly hitting back, Farhad Shabab, the estranged ousted president, told Dawn that Hazrat Wali was ‘a nonentity’ in the party as he had not yet acquired the basic membership of PPP.

“I am still the constitutional president of PPP Khyber as not only I enjoy the support of maximum number of party workers but also the central leadership has not yet issued notification regarding my removal from the post,” he said.

Mr Shabab said that becoming president of the party required fulfillment of certain legal obligations as per the party constitution.

He blamed Malik Waris Khan for creating rift among the party workers. He alleged that Malik Waris had already decided to join Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf and was bent upon weakening PPP.

“The party had issued three show cause notices to him in the past for violating party discipline and this time too he will be asked to explain his anti-party stance,” Mr Shabab said.

He said that all the tehsil cabinets were intact and only he was authorised to announce schedule for new elections at the agency level. “I am in constant touch with the party workers to sort out consensus candidates for the coming elections from both the constituencies of Khyber Agency,” he said.

Malik Waris Khan could not be contacted for his comments despite repeated efforts by this scribe.

Fawad Khan, a disgruntled PPP worker from Bara, said that internal bickering disappointed party activists. Most of PPP workers had distanced themselves from the party owing to infighting between different aspirants for the party slots, he added.

“The party local leadership has miserably failed to raise an effective voice for thousands of displaced families of Bara while other political workers are busy in organising all sorts of relief activities for IDPs to gain some political mileage,” said Fawad Khan.