SWABI, Oct 19: Local Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders and workers fear the party in the district will be in trouble if the leadership fails to patch things up between provincial leaders Amir Muqam and Pir Sabir Shah before the next elections.

According to them, the party organised a public meeting at the Government High School playground on October 8 hoping Mr Muqam and Mr Shah would show up to give out a strong message of unity to rivals.

However, the event failed to serve the purpose as Mr Muqam and his supporters and sympathisers stayed away for being not invited to it.

“Mr Shah and his supporters attended the meeting but it was a poor show,” a key PML-N leader said.

He said the Oct 8 public meeting was enough to apprise the leadership about the party’s declining popularity in the district.

In the district, Mr Muqam group is led by former provincial food minister Ghafoor Khan Jadoon, while PML-N district general secretary Dildar Khan heads the Pir Sabir Shah group.

Mr Ghafoor is a former PML-Q leader, while Dildar belongs to a family of Leaguers. PML-N workers and leaders told Dawn on Friday that the central leadership should resolve differences between provincial leaders to prevent the party from a likely defeat in the next elections.

“The two groups can settle all their issues in no time only if the central leadership intervenes. And if that doesn’t happen, the party will be having problems, especially at the time of the award of tickets in the district. I fear some disgruntled leaders will contest elections as independent candidates,” a local leader said.

He said PML-N grew stronger in the province, including Swabi district, after Mr Muqam joined it, but differences between him and Mr Sabir Shah had been troubling the party.

When contacted, PML-N district joint secretary Waseem Shah said efforts were underway to strengthen the party in Swabi for the imminent elections.

“It is high time for us all to shun differences and work together for making the party stronger. If that happens, only then we could say the future belong to us,” he said.

He refused to comment on differences between Amir Muqam group and Pir Sabir Shah group and said he would only call for unity, which, he said, was a must for the party’s victory in the next elections. Mr Jadoon demanded immediate dissolution of the party’s provincial election committee comprising Afzal Khan, MPA Javed Abbasi, Qaimos Khan and said a new panel should be formed after taking ‘genuine’ local leadership into confidence.

Mr Dildar, however, rejected the demand, saying the party leadership’s decision to form the election committee couldn’t be challenged.