PESHAWAR: PTI MNA Nasir Khan Khattak on Monday claimed Javed Hashmi would lead the party’s forward bloc in the National Assembly.

PTI chief Imran Khan had announced on Sunday he had parted ways with party president Javed Hashmi for opposing the march on the Prime Minister’s House.

“Javed Hashmi will be our (PTI dissidents) leader in the lower house of parliament,” Nasir Khattak told this news agency here.

The MNA said Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri of PAT were bent on harming democracy under a well-scripted international plan.

He said the plan was partially conveyed to the party’s parliamentary meeting at Imran Khan’s residence in Bani Gala three months after the May 11, 2013 elections.

“The meeting of PTI parliamentarians were told by chairman Imran Khan to prepare for elections in 2014 as the Nawaz government will not last more than a year,” he said.

Khattak said he would contact Javed Hashmi and other party leaders to make future course of action.

MNA Nasir Khattak says Imran, Qadri bent on harming democracy

He claimed that there were 21 PTI MNAs, who were unwilling to resign from the assembly, and that the decision to quit the National Assembly was taken by the unconstitutional core committee of the party without consulting lawmakers.

The MNA said the strength of the PTI forward block had swelled to 22 after the expulsion of Javed Hashmi.

He said PTI president Javed Hashmi had rightly said Imran Khan was acting on directions of some ‘external forces’.

“By calling for mutiny and attacking the state symbol, Imran Khan has lost the right to lead the party, so he must step down and face the legal action under Article 6 of the Constitution,” he said.

Khattak said the attack against parliament and the Prime Minister’s House by the PTI chairman was a declaration of war against the state and that most PTI leaders were against the dictatorial policies of Imran Khan.

He said the PTI constitution didn’t allow the chairman to expel any member of the party by a public announcement.

The MNA said the decision to quitting the National Assembly was a discrimination against MNAs as party members didn’t resign from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to protect the provincial government.

He said there was no democracy in the party and that it was hijacked by two powerful men, including Jehangir Tareen and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who made all key decisions without consulting others.

“Jehangir Tareen and Shah Mehmood Qureshi along with Awami Muslim League MNA Shaikh Rashid Ahmad have put the entire party’s future at stake by giving wrong advice to Imran Khan,” he said.

Khattak said there was no danger to democracy in the country and instead, Imran Khan had created problems for himself by launching an uncalled-for anti-PML-N government march on Islamabad.

He said Tahirul Qadri of PAT was an agent of Jewish lobby.

“Qadri is a Canadian national, who can’t even become a member of parliament, so how he could ask an elected prime minister to step down,” he said.

The MNA said PTI won’t win a single assembly seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if the mid-term elections were held.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd , 2014