ISLAMABAD: Nearly two years after removing the elected president of its Balochistan chapter, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has now dissolved the party’s organising com­mittee in the province and appointed Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind the party’s provincial organiser.

According to a notification iss­ued by PTI Secretary General Jahangir Khan Tareen, Mr Rind will consult all PTI stakeholders and form a new organising committee. The party has so far been unable to attract any former members of the parliament from Balochistan. With the exception of Nawabzada Humayun Jogezai, a former police officer and son-in-law of former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, the party did not have any sardar or nawab within its ranks, despite having presence in all districts of Balochistan.

In Yar Muhammad Rind, the party has found both a former lawmaker and a traditional Baloch sardar. But the decision to appoint him the party’s provincial chief weeks after he joined the fold has sent shockwaves among diehard party workers.

In background interviews, some PTI leaders acknowledged that such decisions could weaken the party which was already facing internal cracks. Party leaders ter­med the move a continuation of the decision to appoint former Punjab Governor Chaudhry Moham­mad Sarwar as the party’s Punjab chief, saying that giving preferential treatment to newcomers and ignoring the founding members of the party would only create further fissures within the PTI.

In January 2014, Qasim Khan Suri, the elected president of PTI’s Balochistan chapter, was quietly shown the door. The unceremonious dismissal of Mr Suri – who had arranged a massive public meeting for PTI chief Imran Khan in Quetta in 2012 – had created a stir.

An organising committee under the convener-ship of Humayun Jogezai had been formed after Mr Suri was fired. Now that committee has also been dissolved following Mr Rind’s appointment.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2015

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