MUZAFFARABAD: The members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly (MLAs) who had defected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and joined the coalition government under Chaudry Anwarul Haq stand expelled from the party.

This was declared by PTI’s regional president and former prime minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi at a press conference in Hattian Bala, the district headquarters of Jhelum Valley, on Wednesday.

He was flanked by PTI’s ticket holder Syed Zeeshan Haider, district councillor Asif Iqbal Mughal, Ansar Pirzada, Zain Gillani and other party workers on the occasion.

While taking a strict position about the renegade lawmakers, Mr Niazi, however, appeared lenient towards the PTI councillors and other former workers, saying there was an opportunity for them to re-join the party before its re-organisation.

Mr Niazi, who was made to quit the office of prime minister by his own parliamentary party in April 2022, maintained that disturbing a government was not the job of political parties but that of the conspirators.

“Imran Khan’s government was sent packing through a conspiracy and prior to that my government was also toppled under a conspiracy … But I had left everything at the will of the Almighty,” he said.

He said during his rule, a reformation process was launched, among other initiatives, but the prevailing position of the government was open before everyone.

“People have fallen victim to a conspiracy even in the prevailing situation. When Mr Haq became the prime minister, nobody knew till the last moment as to which party’s candidate he happens to be. And when he himself declared in his post [PM’s] election speech that he was not a PTI candidate, the cat came out of the bag and we decided to sit on the opposition benches,” Mr Niazi said.

At the inception of its government in August 2021, the PTI had 32 lawmakers in the 53-member house. At the time of Mr Haq’s election in April this year, in the wake of the disqualification of Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, it suffered a major blow as its 22 legislators defected to the coalition government, which included PPP and PML-N.

Of the remaining nine who chose to sit on opposition benches, only seven publicly affiliate themselves with PTI while two are still close to Mr Ilyas who has recently been named as regional president of Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party.

“We were with Imran Khan, we are with him and we will remain with him. If anyone else wants to quit he can do so,” Mr Niazi said.

He maintained that people should be provided opportunities in politics to ponder over the situation and take decisions about their affiliations.

Criticising the arrest of the PTI chairman, he termed it “oppression and fascism.”

According to him, Mr Khan had not been convicted in any case and the treatment meted out to him was in fact aimed at subduing him and his loyalist workers.

“No doubt these are the hard times for our party, but they will pass and at the end of the day, Imran Khan will lead not only Pakistan but also the entire Muslim Ummah.

Regarding an ongoing sit-in in the border town of Chinari for the release of Mr Khan under the leadership of Zeeshan Haider, he asked PTI workers from across the state to attend it in maximum numbers to send a categorical message throughout the world.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2023