GUJRAT: Workers and lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have expressed concern over the full control of the party’s coalition partners -- the PML-Q – over the administrative and uplift affairs of Gujrat and said such a policy is costing the PTI heavily.

This is the first time that the local PTI chapter has raised the issue through a joint statement after a meeting of the district chapter, which was presided over by its president, MPA Saleem Sarwar Jaura.

The meeting reviewed the overall political situation of Gujrat and the participants expressed reservations that the party workers and locals were feeling dejected and disappointed and such a situation was not acceptable at any cost.

Through a joint resolution, the participants said the coalition partners had exploited the compulsions of the PTI and “occupied” the administrative affairs of Gujrat. They also warned the officials of the district administration, police and other departments against becoming personal servants to any politician, as their focus should only be on serving the people.

When asked why PTI lawmakers do not raise the issue with the party leadership, MPA Jaura, who is also the provincial parliamentary secretary of social welfare department, told Dawn that the lawmakers had already conveyed their reservations over the PML-Q’s control in Gujrat to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and the senior party leadership and party officials too had expressed their opinion at a meeting the other day.

He added that the PTI’s Gujrat chapter was not against entertaining its coalition partners, but only demanded the PTI be accommodated too, particularly in the constituencies of its lawmakers.

Mr Jaura is the lone PTI MPA in the tehsil who had contested the 2018 general elections from PP-31 as per a seat adjustment formula agreed upon between the PTI and PML-Q. The PTI had also clinched one NA and three PA seats from Kharian and Sarai Alamgir tehsils.

Sources said the PTI lawmakers from Kharian and Sarai Alamgir had protested with the senior party leadership several times against being overlooked by their coalition partners even in the affairs of their own constituencies that were once dominated by the PML-Q.

Analysts believe that this tug of war between the coalition partners might gain momentum with the issue being raised by PTI workers and lawmakers. They said the PTI Gujrat chapter could be backed by the senior party leadership aimed at countering the pressure tactics of the coalition partners, as reports of government efforts to form a forward bloc within the PML-N in Punjab Assembly were rife these days.

A PTI lawmaker on condition of anonymity said that efforts were under way to fulfil a constitutional requirement in order to form a forward bloc within a party to strengthen the PTI government in Punjab as well as the upcoming Senate elections early next year.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2020