KOHAT: Serious cracks have appeared in the ruling Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in Kohat as the local leadership of the party has announced to launch a protest movement against the party lawmakers from the district.

A convention of PTI, Kohat district, was held at the Municipal Hall here on Sunday which was called by district president Hamayun Chacha, who is a tailor by profession.

Addressing the convention, Chacha announced to stage a protest demonstration against MNA Shehryar Afridi and other lawmakers, who, he said, did not attend the party meetings called by him.

He said that the MNA preferred to sit in his hujra (guesthouse) instead of attending the party meetings to discuss and resolve people’s problems. He also castigated MPA Ziaullah Bangash and deputy speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi for wilfully skipping party meetings.

“The lawmakers’ absence today is in fact a matter of shame for them, as the party workers have come to the convention to inform them about the problems of their areas,” said the district president.

Chacha, however, welcomed MPA Amjid Khan Afridi, advisor to the chief minister, who attended the convention to remove his personal and political differences with the other three elected leaders.

The district president disclosed that before general elections the party high command had offered him the ticket for the National Assembly from Kohat, but he presented the name of Shehryar Afridi. He regretted that even then the MNA was hiding from him and the people. Chacha said that the MNA was not meeting him because he was a tailor master.

He said that the MNA had made repeated promises for restarting railcar service between Kohat and Rawalpindi, provision of gas to all Kohat areas first and then to other districts, reconstruction of hospital and provision of jobs, but he never raised these issues in the National Assembly.

Chacha said that the party workers would stage a protest in front of the railway station for demanding resumption of the rail service.

MPA Amjid Afridi said that he had joined the party with the consent of chairman Imran Khan though the other PTI parliamentarians were not ready to accept him in the party. He vowed to work alongside the other parliamentarians for the development of Kohat district.

Mr Amjid said that he was ready to give initial grant of Rs50 million from his fund for the reconstruction of Liaquat Memorial Hospital, but the other parliamentarians should also put their share so that a modern health facility could be constructed for the people of Kohat division.

He said that serious patients from Kurram Agency, Orakzai Agency and other areas around Kohat were taken to Peshawar for treatment and many of them expired on way to hospitals.

He said that in order to save lives of such patients it was the duty of elected representatives from Kohat to equip the KDA divisional headquarters hospital with MRI, CT scan and trauma facilities besides establishing a burns centre.