PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has terminated the basic membership of its MPA, Javed Nasim, for violating discipline.

According to PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa general secretary Khalid Masood, the move comes from the party’s top leadership in the wake of the lawmaker’s statements against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khan Khattak, who also belongs to the party ruling the province.

Javed Nasim was elected MPA from PK-3 Peshawar on the PTI ticket in the last general elections.

PTI provincial president Azam Khan Swati had issued a show-cause notice to him for staging a protest against the chief minister earlier this month.

Javed Nasim says he’s still a party member, has complaints against CM, not central leadership

The MPA had accused the chief minister of being involved in corruption and nepotism and had announced to stage a sit-in until he was removed as the head of the provincial government.

Javed Nasim was to begin the sit-in in Hashtnagri area of Peshawar on October 15 but he deferred it at the request of senior party leaders.

Insiders said the MPA was given the showcase notice but he failed to respond to it within two weeks and therefore, his membership had been terminated.

They said the top PTI leadership had taken notice of Javed Nasim’s protest, which coincided with the party’s sit-in against the PML-N government in Islamabad.

Insiders said the timing of the dissenting MPA’s announcement to stage a sit-in against the chief minister irked the leadership as it felt the move could harm the party’s protest against the PML-N government.

When contacted, Javed Nasim insisted he continued to be part of PTI and that he was answerable to the party chairman, Imran Khan, only.

“I will leave the party only when Imran Khan does so,” he said.

The MPA said the current Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president of PTI was not an elected office-bearer and therefore, he couldn’t terminate his basic membership of the party.

“The provincial president of PTI can’t serve a show cause notice on any party member and therefore, he is not bound to respond to it,” he said.

Javed Nasim said he would stand by the party’s chairman and would continue to serve the people, who had elected him as member of the provincial assembly.

He said he had complaints against the chief minister over development schemes in his constituency and that he had no grievances against PTI or its central leadership.

“I’m still a member of PTI and will continue to follow its Constitution,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014