MUZAFFARABAD: Three senior leaders of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday overturned the nominations of some United States-based PML-N workers for overseas party offices, made by party’s regional president Raja Farooq Haider, terming them “unnecessary and unconstitutional”.

On Saturday, a ‘notification’ on the letterhead of PML-N AJK chapter was circulated on social media, stating that party president Haider had accorded approval to the nomination of Malik Abid Hussain of district Bhimber, currently settled in Dallas, USA, as head of the PML-N body for North America and had directed him to accomplish the remaining organisational setup.

Mr Haider is currently on a private tour to the US along with PML-N legislator Ahmed Raza Qadri.

The ‘notification’ carried signatures of not only Mr Haider but also of Shah Ghulam Qadir, the regional secretary-general.

However, Mr Qadir immediately took to Twitter to distance himself from the move.

“I have no connection with the notification.... Neither was any consultation held with me nor was I taken into confidence in this regard. Our stance after the [AJK] general elections is that there should be re-organisation of the party and the central leadership is aware of it,” he tweeted.

According to PML-N sources, PML-N’s central senior vice president Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and secretary general Ahsan Iqbal had attended a meeting in Kashmir House on July 29 to discuss the election debacle and future line of action.

A follow-up meeting presided over by Mr Haider was held on July 31. Its participants included senior vice president Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, chief organiser Mushtaq Minhas, vice presidents Dr Najeeb Naqi and Chaudhry Mohammad Aziz, additional secretary general Abdul Khaliq Wasi and coordination secretary Zulfiqar Malik.

The meeting had decided that all organisations and wings of PML-N AJK, including those in the 12 constituencies in Pakistan and abroad, would be dissolved to pave the way for fresh [party] elections.

It was also decided that new bodies would be constituted at constituency, polling station/ward, union council, district and division level within two months.

The decisions were conveyed to both Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif in writing after the meeting at the party’s letterhead with signatures of all seven participants.

However, while reservations about the first nomination were not enough, Mr Haider made two more nominations in the North America chapter late on Sunday evening, in a move that brought the serious differences within the PML-N ranks on this issue into the open.

In their response on the party letterhead on Monday, Mr Farooq, Mr Minhas and Mr Qadir asserted that the “nominations were not only in contravention of a consensus on re-organisation but had also caused irreparable damage to the party’s goodwill.”

Prior to any decision by the party’s central leadership new nominations were “inappropriate,” they said.

They recalled that last year it was decided that any ‘inevitable’ organisational set up would be made through Mr Minhas after Mr Haider himself got him elevated as chief organiser.

However, not only this was avoided in the recent nominations, the secretary general had also been bypassed in the issuance of notifications.

“Therefore, all nominations should be deemed revoked from the date of issuance for being uncalled for and unconstitutional. We also condemn attempts to create grouping within the party,” they declared.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2021