PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party has decided to replace its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Mohammad Humayun Khan with former federal minister Najamuddin Khan to overcome internal differences in the party.

“The decision has been taken by Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians president Asif Ali Zardari and it will be formally notified by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on his return from Balochistan,” Rahimdad Khan, member of the party’s central executive committee, confirmed to Dawn on Sunday.

He said that he had already apprised the top leadership of the existing pathetic situation of the party in the province and suggested that Humayun should be replaced as he had already completed his tenure as per constitution of the party.

He said that the decision about Humayun’s replacement was taken during his meeting with Mr Zardari. “Najamuddin Khan and Ziaullah Afridi also joined the meeting later,” he added.

Move aimed at ending grouping in party

Mr Khan said that Humayun failed to come up to the expectations of top leadership of the party as he never paid serious attention to enforcement of the decisions made by the central executive committee, particularly regarding reorganisation and resolution of the issues of workers in different districts.

The internal differences in the party, he said, had reached such an extent that the provincial president was not allowed by workers to address conventions during Bilawal Bhutto’s visit to the residence of Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmati in Peshawar and later in Hatyan, Mardan.

Najamuddin Khan, who belongs to Upper Dir, told Dawn that Mr Zardari assigned him the duty to lead the party in the province as Humayun completed his tenure.

He avoided sharing further details, saying Humayun assured him of his cooperation to run the party’s affairs in a befitting manner in the province.

Humayun Khan and PPP provincial spokesperson Amjad Afridi did not attend telephone phones despite repeated attempts by this scribe.

However, Gohar Inqilabi, PPP secretary events and records, described it a very good decision in the party’s larger interests. He said that the decision would pave way to end differences in the party.

According to some of the senior activists of PPP, during the past four years internal differences in the party reached such an extent that several senior leaders refused to cooperate with Humayun Khan.

Some of the PPP leading figures, who had held a meeting with Bilawal Bhutto at the residence of Rahimdad Khan in Hatyan village of Mardan in June 2021, had suggested replacement of the provincial president.

It is pertinent to mention here that Najamuddin Khan, a former federal minister, also served as general secretary of the party for three terms when Khawaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, Rahimdad Khan and Syed Zahir Ali Shah were provincial presidents.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2021