TOBA TEK SINGH: Fissures seem to have developed in the ranks of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the district.

The PTI had managed to clinch only one MNA and two MPA seats in the July 25 general elections out of the three MNA and six MPA seats of the district – MNA Riaz Fatyana from NA-113 Kamalia, his wife MPA Ashfa Fatyana from PP-123 and MPA Saeed Ahmad Saeedi PP-121. Another MPA was added to the count after the Oct 14 by-elections on Gojra’s PP-118 seat when PML-N-backed independent candidate Bilal Asghar Warraich defeated PTI’s Asad Zaman Cheema and later joined the party.

Warraich had claimed before the by-polls that he wanted a PTI ticket but was denied when the party’s NA-112 candidate Chaudhry Muhammad Ashfaq and Governor Chaudhry Sarwar opposed his nomination.

After joining the party, Warraich had demanded a provincial ministry and was appointed the minister for environment protection after his meeting with Jahangir Tareen, but was yet to take oath.

In the meantime, Cheema told the media that in a writ petition filed against Warraich seeking his disqualification on the grounds of a fake BA degree, the Higher Education Commission had submitted a report before the Supreme Court stating that Warraich’s BA degree had been quashed in 2015 by the Punjab University (PU).

In a press conference in Gojra, Warraich had alleged that his BA degree had been quashed to blackmail him in 2014 on the directions of the then governor Mr Sarwar, who was with the PML-N back then and the university chancellor. Mr Sarwar had forced him to join the PML-N, which he had refused over which the governor got his degree quashed through the then PU vice chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran. He also claimed that his appeal against the quashing of his degree was pending before the Lahore High Court.

After Warraich’s entry into the PTI, two groups seem to have emerged – one headed by Fatyana with his wife Ashfa and Bilal Warraich, and the other by Ashfaq and consisting MPA Saeedi and Asad Cheema. The latter is reportedly backed by Governor Sarwar, while the Fatyana group claims to have the support of Mr Tareen.

A PTI leader from Kamalia, who is close to Fatyana, on condition of anonymity told Dawn that it was Governor Sarwar who had got Fatyana ousted from the party in 2016, but Mr Tareen and party chief Imran Khan had realised before the general elections that only Fatyana and his wife could possibly win in the district, hence were awarded party tickets.

He claimed that Fatyana’s son Ehsan, a former MPA from PP-58 Faisalabad, was a potential candidate in the by-election on Faisalabad’s NA-103, but Sarwar and Ashfaq got his application for a party ticket rejected because of “personal grudges”. Later, the PTI lost both NA-103 and PP-103 seats in the Oct 14 by-elections.

The leader further claimed that there was unrest among all 14 PTI MNAs of west Punjab because of the differences in the party created by Mr Sarwar.

Chaudhry Ashfaq rejected Warraich’s claims and said that he and Governor Sarwar had supported Asad Cheema in the by-election as he had been defeated in the July 25 general polls with a margin of only 443 votes by PML-N’s Khalid Warraich. He added that Cheema had solid proof against Warraich’s fake matriculation, FA and BA degrees that will be presented in the court when hearing on the pending petition starts.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018