SWABI: The Pakistan People’s Party local chapter stands divided as the party’s district president and the general secretary are accusing each other of being disloyal to the party.

Party sources told Dawn on Tuesday that nomination of Naeem Khan as district president and Asad Zaman as general secretary were expected to revive the party’s weakening position in Swabi, but the party’s two main office holders have developed bitter differences, leading to further rifts in the party.

Mr Zaman is son of Manfat Khan who remained the party district president for 28 years.

The sources recalled that when Manfat Khan was made district president his appointment was too opposed by district general secretary Maj retired Fida Hussain. They said when the ANP and PPP forged alliance in the previous government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fida Hussain declared himself as the district president.

According to them, Manfat Khan protested the decision, accusing Fida of a turncoat. According to him, Mr Fida was a new entrant in the party and was creating differences among the workers.

It is to mention here that Fida Hussain is currently the district general secretary of ruling PTI.

The sources recalled that before the 2013 general elections, Javid Inqilabi and Ali Khan were nominated president and general secretary of PPP, respectively, but, they were removed in 2014, and re-nominated a few months later.

They said in May last year a meeting of the party attended by former provincial president Rahimdad Khan and current president Humayun Khan adopted a unanimous resolution, demanding that Mr Inqilabi and Ali Khan should be retained as president and general secretary.

However, the party provincial leaders pushed the resolution under the carpet and nominated Naeem Khan as president and Asad Zaman general secretary.

It is learnt that a few days ago Naeem Khan and his supporters held a meeting in Chota Lahor and declared that Asad Zaman was not acceptable to them and that the party leadership should immediately remove him.

To counter the move, Asad Zaman also convened a meeting at Topi city and adopted a resolution, demanding of the leadership to remove Naeem from the post.

When contacted, Asad Zaman told Dawn their main objective was to strengthen the party in the district. While Naeem Khan said that efforts were underway to work out a durable working formula.

PRIVATE HAJ SCHEME: Mohammad Hayat Khan, chairman of Pakistan Haj Training Council, has demanded of the government to abolish the private Haj and Umrah schemes because the private companies were fleecing the people.

Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, he said under the government Haj scheme a person was charged Rs270,000. However, the private companies charged from Rs300,000 to Rs400,000.

Similarly, he said the private companies also overcharged the people who wished to perform Umrah.

CRACKDOWN: In a crackdown on underage rickshaw drivers during April the police fined 1,400 drivers and seized 400 tape recorders.

District in-charge of traffic police Janab Ali Khan said the crackdown would continue as underage driving, especially those of rickshaws and motorcycles, was leading to frequent road accidents.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2017