LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) women wing is facing fissures over the nomination of the party workers on reserved seats as voices of dissent are getting louder – questioning the women at the helm.

The party’s active women workers on Friday surrounded Aliya Hamza, who is heading women campaign in different constituencies, and questioned her for removing active workers’ names and including ‘unknown’ women in the party’s women priority list.

The PTI’s annoyed worker, Saima Shaukat, said she and other active workers were the face of the party for the past over one decade and they actively promoted and supported it through thick and thin.

“Our names were in women’s priority list sent from central Punjab but they were removed during finailisation of the list in Islamabad,” she alleged and held Aliya Hamza responsible for it. Aliya, however, kept silence.

Ms Saima shouted at Ms Aliya for trying to sideline the active workers and posing herself as women workers’ leader.

“If she had campaigned and led to Jahangir Tareen’s win in Lodhran, we had campaigned for Abdul Aleem Khan and Dr Yasmin Rashid and earned encouraging results,” she said.

Talking to Dawn, Saima said Aliya and party’s women wing president Munazza Hassan had changed the lists and deprived the active workers of their due right and recognition. She said such women’s names were included in the list as were even unknown to the party’s active workers for the last 13 years,” she bemoaned.

“We had also gone to Banigala and met Imran Khan who promised us to review the women’s priority list but all in vain,” she lamented.

When contacted, Aliya Hamza said she was not concerned about the women workers protest and their shouting at her. “My focus is women’s campaign being launched from NA-132 on Saturday (today).”

Refusing to respond to women workers’ protest, she said the party leadership should give its statement on the issue and claimed that the women priority list had been finalised by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

It may be mentioned that the PTI’s Senate candidate Dr Zarqa was ignored and put on the bottom of the reserved seats. She had also launched a tirade against party’s women wing president Munazza Hassan.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2018