MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister and ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) regional president, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, on Sunday declared that strict action would be taken against those PTI councillors who had voted against the party’s nominees for reserved seats in the local government (LG) institutions.

“Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf believes in democracy and high moral values. We will follow the party’s constitution in letter and in spirit and take strict action against the turncoats… In fact, there is no room for such elements in our party,” he said in a statement, issued in the wake of media reports that some PTI councillors had voted against the candidates fielded by their own party.

Mr Ilyas claimed that the PTI had gained a bigger public mandate in the LG polls as compared to the general elections and it was determined to grant authority along with full financial resources to all elected representatives.

It’s because the PTI government took the step of holding LG polls after more than three decades to transfer powers to the grassroots level under the vision of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, he said.

Mr Ilyas said all those who had clinched victory on the PTI ticket were respectable for him, but the reports that many PTI councillors had not followed party’s policy in elections against the reserved seats were highly deplorable.

He said he had directed PTI’s regional senior vice president, vice presidents, secretary general, additional secretary general and divisional office bearers to compile a list of all such councillors and issue show cause notices to them at the earliest.

“Violation of discipline will not be tolerated at any cost… And therefore the party will serve show-cause notices on all such people to explain their position. A further action in this regard will be taken afterwards under the local government election rules,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2023