QUETTA: The Pashtoon­khwah Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) stood formally divi­ded on Tuesday after its sacked dissidents annou­n­ced a new faction at a congress held in Quetta and elected its leaders.

Khushal Khan Kakar, the son of former senator and PkMAP’s provincial president Usman Kakar, was elected as chairman of the new faction and Mukhtar Khan Yousafzai was elected as co-chairman.

The faction leaders, who were expelled from PkMAP last month by its chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai for allegedly violating the party’s constitution and opposing his policies, held their congress at Quetta’s Ayub Stadium just a week after PkMAP held its seventh congress and re-elec­ted Mr Achakzai as its chairman and Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal as secretary general.

A large number of people, including party delegates, attended the rebel group’s meeting.

According to party sources, Raza Muhammad Raza has been elected as senior deputy chairman, Hameed Khan as deputy chairman, Khurshid Kaka Jee as secretary general, Essa Roshan as central information secretary, and Yousaf of Kakar as finance secretary.

Moreover, Obaidullah Babit, Sahiba Bareech, Siraj Afghan, Sardar Guljan Kibzai, Ali Haider, Gohar Ali, Shah Room Khan, Khalid Mehmood, Shamsheer Ali Khan Sifatullah, Essa Achakzai, Bacha Gul and Azam Masyzai were elected as central secretaries.

The congress will resume on Wednesday (today) to take important decisions about the faction’s future.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2022