PESHAWAR: Sixteen PPP office-bearers in Peshawar districts on Tuesday resigned from their positions to protest the replacement of the party’s district general secretary, Misbahuddin.

A group of PPP activists led by district senior vice-president, Fakhar Alam Khalil, told a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club that the party’s district cabinet except district president Malik Saeed Khan had rejected the replacement of the district general secretary over the non-issuance of a show cause notice to him.

Mr Khalil said a committee of senior leaders headed by Najamuddin Khan and Rahimdad Khan should be formed to brief the party’s top leadership about the performance of the provincial leadership.

“We will not withdraw our resignations unless the district general secretary is reinstated,” he said.

The PPP leader claimed that the party’s office-bearers in Nowshera and Charsadda would also follow suit against the ‘dictatorship’ of provincial president Humayun Khan.

He said the people, who had celebrated Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s hanging, had taken the party hostage, so the workers would strive to remove them.

PPP provincial deputy information secretary Gohar Khan Inqilabi told Dawn that Misbahuddin was removed for violating the party’s discipline.

He said one of those violations was Mr Misbah’s move to absent himself from the main function of Benazir Bhutto’s birthday at the residence of Humayun Khan on June 21, 2019, and mark the day separately.

“The party’s provincial leadership has nothing to do with Misbahuddin’s appointment or replacement as it is prerogative of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,” he said.

He said there were many reasons for the removal of the district general secretary.

About the issuance of a show cause notice, Mr Inqilabi said no one could question the party chairman’s authority in that respect. He rejected resignations by the district office-bearers as a minor issue and said the PPP was a democratic party, whose workers had the right to express views.

The PPP leader said he was hopeful that the issue would be resolved amicably soon but there would be no compromise on principles and discipline of the party.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2019