PESHAWAR: After its failure in the Dec 19 local government elections, Pakistan Peoples Party here on Wednesday dissolved its organisations in the Peshawar division, including Peshawar city district, Charsadda and Nowshera, and Buner district to reorganise the party in these areas.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the party’s provincial cabinet held in Peshawar with its provincial president Najamuddin Khan. It was also attended by its candidates for different tehsils of the province.

According to sources, the participants expressed anguish over the election results and described the same as the failure of the relevant office-bearers for not nominating capable candidates.

The speakers said that despite repeated announcements the party’s reorganisation process was yet to start, adding that incompetent people were sitting on the key seats and doing nothing for the reorganisation.

Party leader says reorganisation to focus on next general elections

Sharing reports about alleged irregularities in the polling, the candidates accused the election staff of supporting different influential candidates. They also criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan of failure to ensure free, fair and impartial elections. They claimed that many of the election staff members (presiding officers) remained absent from their duties to resolve the candidates’ complaints.

Many of the meeting participants referred to rifts in the party in different districts and suggested solutions to remove the differences. They said the party tickets were not issued on merit which led to defeat of the party. They said that action should be taken against those who violated the party discipline in the election.

The senior activists stressed that ideological workers should be given priority in the elections so as to restore confidence of the people. They also expressed dissatisfaction over the role of provincial leadership for not taking action against the people who created problems for the relevant office-bearers.

PPP provincial deputy information secretary Syed Tahir Abbas told Dawn that his party had strong reservations about the role of the ECP and the provincial government. However, he said the organisations in different districts were dissolved after a thorough discussion.

He said the people who violated the party discipline had been issued show cause notices, mainly in Nowshera.

He said the party would focus on reorganisation in the provincial assembly constituencies to prepare itself for the next general elections.

He said the participants raised several issues, including issuance of party tickets, and gave useful suggestions.

“Though we could not win the election, we have improved our vote bank,” Mr Abbas said.

According to a separate statement, a five-member committee has been formed for reorganisation of the party in Peshawar city district. The committee includes former provincial president Syed Zahir Ali Shah, provincial senior vice-president Syed Ayub Shah, provincial deputy information secretary Tahir Abbas, comrade Anwar Zeb and Khwaja Yawar Naseer.

The reorganisation committee for Nowshera district consists of Azizullah Khan, Khan Pervaiz, Tariq Khattak, Ahad Khattak and Iftikhar Ali Shah.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2021