ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has suspended the basic membership of its more than 20 members and activists, including a member of the provincial assembly, for allegedly violating the party’s discipline and backing PML-N candidates during the recent final phase of the local government elections in Punjab.

The decision was announced after PTI chairman Imran Khan presided over a party meeting at his Banigala residence on Saturday.

The MPA, Dr Salahuddin Khan, whose party membership has been suspended, belongs to Mianwali, the hometown of the PTI chief. Others facing the action belong to Faisalabad, Attock and Narowal districts.

The ruling PML-N made almost a clean sweep in the elections, as unofficial results showed that it won the chairperson’s slot in 30 district councils with both the PPP and PTI unable to get a top position in any district. However, the PML-Q managed to get its candidate elected in the Attock district council, while independents remained successful in Bhakkar and Pakpattan. The PML-N also remained successful in all the 11 municipal corporations, according to the unofficial results. The party will now have mayors and deputy mayors in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujrat, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur.

There were reports from a number of district and municipal corporations in Punjab that PTI leaders, including elected representatives, had supported PML-N candidates.

Sources in the PTI said that Mr Khan got infuriated after seeing media reports about his party’s members extending support to the arch rival PML-N, particularly at a time when he was running a campaign against the government over corruption charges.

Mr Khan criticised the ruling party and the prime minister for allegedly buying loyalties of opponents. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was known as the inventor of “Changa Manga politics” and he had always acquired power through rigging and by buying loyalties.

The PTI chairman said Mr Sharif would always be remembered for eliminating politics based on ideology and principles. He vowed to put up resistance against such PML-N efforts, claiming that the Sharifs would not be able to buy the loyalties of any PTI member in any future elections.

The PTI leadership also reviewed the arrangements for a public meeting to be held in Swabi on Sunday. With the public meeting, the party is launching a mass contact campaign again after the long adjournment of the Panama Papers case by the Supreme Court.

In the meeting, the participants expressed concerns over an ongoing “propaganda campaign” against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in the media by the PML-N.

The PTI leaders said the report of Justice Qazi Faez Isa on the Quetta attack was a charge-sheet against the government.

Talking to Dawn, PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the party was preparing a plan for holding more public meetings in the next few weeks to mobilise people against the “corrupt rulers”.

He said that he would hold a public meeting in Rajanpur on Jan 7, whereas the party chairman was also expected to attend some more public meetings.

Mr Qureshi was, however, not present in Saturday’s meeting. He said he was busy in attending some necessary social gatherings in his constituency of Multan. He will also not attend the Swabi public meeting.

The PTI has suspended the membership of Malik Matiullah, Syed Mehmood Shah, Babli Khan, Farooq Darral, Malik Mumtaz, Fayyaz Shah, Khurshid Khattak, Ghulam Muhammad Khattak, Zafar Khan Baloch, Nadir Shahroz and Majid from Mianwali; Mumtaz Cheema, Hassan Masood Malik, Zeeshan Liaqat, Bao Yaqoob, Mian Muhammad Iqbal, Mian Shafqat Mehmood, Aftab Bhatti, Ayaz Gujjar and Nusrat Shafiq from Faisa­labad; Hassan Kambrial, Sohail Kambrial and Atif from Attock; and Tariq Anis, Wakeel Manj and Arshad Manj from Narowal.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2016