PESHAWAR: The Pakistan People’s Party, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has withdrawn the initiative to enrol new members over the Internet to see it fall flat.

Now, it will go for the traditional way of offering membership by distributing forms.

At the same time, the Asif Zardari-led party has decided to contact disgruntled leaders to address their reservations in a bid to revive itself in the province.

Party decides to please disgruntled leaders for revival in KP

The idea of online membership was given by PPP provincial president Khanzada Khan a few months ago as a requirement for intra-party elections in various districts.

However, the party’s other office-bearers keeping in view the opinion of illiterate workers in their respective areas rejected the idea as impracticable.

A senior PPP activist told Dawn on Friday that the party’s central leadership had issued instructions for online membership and that the idea came from the provincial president but it didn’t sit well with most leaders.

“Our party represents all sections of the society and has a lot of uneducated people, who do not know how to use the Internet, so traditional methods offer the best way to enrol new members,” he said.

The activist said the online membership programme was launched more than a month ago without putting in place any mechanism for it and appointing supervisors for it and therefore, no one had registered as new member through it.

An insider said the provincial president was in contact with disgruntled leaders and workers to devise strategy for the party’s revival in the province.

Disgruntled PPP leader Syed Ayub Shah told Dawn that provincial president Khanzada Khan and provincial information secretary Liaquat Shabab had contacted former provincial governor and party president Barrister Masood Kausar for a meeting on intra-party elections.

He said it was a good gesture on part of the provincial president as the differences had caused damage to the party and the only way is to discuss the process for its revival on concrete basis.

Shah said the discussion should be purposeful based on honesty and sincerity so that differences could be removed once and for all in order to take effective steps to strengthen the party across the province.

“We will sit together after Muharram to discuss issues and move forward but it will depend on intentions of the provincial office-bearers to follow the party’s manifesto and enforce democratic culture in real sense,” he said.

The disgruntled leader rejected the online membership idea, saying it was a very complicated process.

He said the PPP provincial president had contacted Barrister Masood Kausar but the schedule of a meeting between them was not fixed.

Shah said before sitting with the provincial president, the ‘ideologues’ would hold a separate meeting to develop a consensus so that negotiations could bear fruit and that annoyed workers had no ego but they wanted the party’s revival on solid basis.

PPP provincial information secretary Liaquat Shabab also confirmed that Khanzada Khan had spoken to Masood Kausar and both of them had agreed to discuss issues.

He said the party’s leadership had always tried sincerely to reunite all groups as it was a large party and could do a lot for welfare of the disadvantaged people.

“The annoyed workers are part of the party, who have the right to use their right of opinion democratically. Besides co-chairperson Asif Zardari, Senator Rehman Malik, opposition leader in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf too have directed workers to forget their differences forever and they should obey the leadership,” he said.

Shabab said the idea of online membership was not viable for such a large party.

He said organising committees would be formed at level of different districts with the consent of top leadership to hold intra-party elections.

“The PPP has roots in the people but differences have affected its activities. Now the party will be re-organised on solid grounds,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2015

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