PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has formed a five-member committee on Tuesday to woo disgruntled leaders and workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The committee members including PPP former provincial president Rahimdad Khan, Najamuddin Khan, Senator Ahmed Hassan Khan, Zulfiqar Afghani and Sher Azam Wazir will hold meetings with the annoyed leaders and submit report to the provincial president within shortest possible time.

The committee was formed in a meeting at the residence of PPP provincial president Khanzada Khan in Mardan on Tuesday. However, disgruntled leaders of the party including former governor Barrister Masood Khausar, former federal minister Lal Mohammad Khan, PPP former provincial coordination secretary Syed Ayub Shah and former speaker of provincial assembly Abdul Akbar Khan were not invited to the meeting.

Sources said that the annoyed leaders of PPP were trying to convince central leadership to hold intra-party elections in the province. They said that a group of senior leaders of the party from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa met Faryal Talpur in Islamabad on Monday but her response was not encouraging.

However, in response to the meeting a statement was issued to media that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had taken serious notice of the activities of some workers, who were publicly opposing the provincial president of the party.

The statement, issued by Senator Farhatullah Babar, said that the PPP co-chairman took serious notice of the situation and called upon all workers and office-bearers to extend full cooperation to the provincial president in sorting out party matters in the province. It said that disagreements and dissentions, if any, should be expressed in the party meetings but not in public.

The PPP co-chairman also asked the party workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to actively support provincial president Khanzada Khan in his efforts to streamline the party matters. He said that central leadership of the party should be kept informed through regular periodical reports about reorganisation of the party in the province.

It is to be mentioned here that a sizeable number of senior leaders and activists have been holding separate meetings to demand intra-party elections. The resentment among PPP workers increased further when central leadership nominated provincial cabinet of the party and warned that four senior leaders including Barrister Masood Kausar, Abdul Akbar Khan, Lal Mohammad Khan and Tariq Khattak would be issued show cause notices for holding separate meetings.

“We are not demanding party offices for ourselves. We are struggling only for restoration of democratic system in the party,” Syed Ayub Shah told Dawn on Tuesday.

Fahim Khattak, media coordinator of PPP provincial president, said that efforts were being made to persuade all the disgruntled workers and leaders to join hands with the provincial president for reorganisation of the party. A reconciliation committee was formed for the purpose.

Our Correspondent from Nowshera adds: PPP central leadership has accelerated efforts to pacify senior members of the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who demand intra-party elections in the province.

Sources said that PPP central leader Faryal Talpur, who controlled party affairs in the province, had called disgruntled leaders including Tariq Khattak and Abdul Akbar Khan to Islamabad to discuss the ideological group’s objections to the nomination of the party’s provincial office-bearers.

They said that central leadership was striving to gather support for the said nominations.

The leaders of ideological group met at the house of Mian Muzaffar Shah where Barrister Masood Kausar, Muzaffar Shah, Lal Khan, Tariq Khattak, Azam Afridi, Ayub Shah, Khawaja Yawar Naseer, Tahir Abbas, Mian Haider Khan, Shaista Khan Baloch, Dr Dawar Iqbal, Ahmad Khan, Dr Zaman Khattak, Bacha Hussain of Malakand and Fasial Jamil of Batkhela were in attendance.

Mr Kausar told journalists said they would organise the workers’ conventions at the district, division and provincial levels to adopt future course of action regarding the views of workers.

The disgruntled leader said that they demanded intra-party elections at provincial level and withdrawal of the nomination of women wing’s provincial president.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2014