MANSEHRA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf suffered defeat in the first phase of local body elections in the province due to internal differences.

“We have to revive our party’s glory in the second phase of local body elections in the province as none other than our own differences led to our [party’s] defeat in the first phase of elections,” he told the PTI Workers Convention here.

The event was addressed by PTI provincial president Pervez Khattak, federal ministers Umar Ayub Khan and Azam Khan Swati, provincial minister Shaukat Yusufzai, and local lawmakers Salah Mohammad Khan, Babar Saleem Swati and Ahmad Hussain Shah.

The chief minister said billions of rupees worth of development projects, including a medical college, Datta Expressway and gravity-flow water supply, would be launched soon for completion in two years.

Says more districts, tehsils in Mansehra on the cards

He said the government was seriously thinking about splitting Mansehra into more districts and tehsils and would make an announcement about it soon.

Mr Mahmood said his presence in the convention was part of the party’s efforts to forge unity against conspiracies of rivals.

PTI provincial president Pervez Khattak said all parties except the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl vanished politically through defeat in the first phase of LG polls.

“We [PTI] have to fight Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s party in the second phase [of local body polls],” he told the party’s worker convention held here.

Mr Khattak, who is also the defence minister, said if he failed to restore the PTI’s popularity within six months, he would relinquish its president’s office. He said the party’s re-organisation at village, tehsil and district levels would begin soon with the consultation of workers.

“Only die-hard workers will be fielded for tehsil chairman elections in consultation with the party’s lawmakers and senators,” he said.

APP adds: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan also addressed the PTI Workers Convention in Abbottabad in the day and said PM Imran Khan was the only hope for the country.

He said Rs1 billion had been sanctioned for the up-gradation of Abbottabad DHQ Hospital and work on it would begin soon.

Our correspondent from Abbottabad adds: PTI provincial president Pervez Khan Khattak told the PTI Workers Convention that his party was the most popular and largest party in the province.

“We [leadership] are taking steps to make the party stronger and stronger,” he said.

Mr Khattak promised award of election tickets ‘on merit’ and said the PTI won’t repeat mistakes in the second phase of LG polls.

He criticised journalists after they shouted slogans against him over some issues and called them ‘people with bad manner’. The journalists boycotted the function shouting ‘go Khattak go’.

The PTI activists, including former tehsil nazim Ishaque Zikraya, also went to the stage and complained against some party workers.

Speaker of the provincial assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, MNA Ali Khan Jadoon, MPA Qalandar Lodhi and other PTI members from across district were present in the convention.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2022