THE dissident Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmaker of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Javed Nasim, whose membership has been challenged by the party after he developed differences with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and allegedly negotiated with other parties for the Senate elections, has vowed to launch his own group comprising PTI lawmakers.

Mr Nasim, who disappeared during the Senate elections, also announced that he will fight the disqualification reference against him.

Here are excerpts from a conversation with him, after he returned to the scene on Monday:

Q. What are your basic differences with the PTI leadership?

A. I have no differences with them. I fought for the people of my constituency. There is no clean water for the children, there is no justice, the police have not been [revamped]. I had repeatedly been raising my voice over these issues in party meetings, so they turned against me. I joined the PTI because it promised to eradicate corruption and this was a dream. But it did not take any [concrete] step. I have been deceived. The youth of my constituency have been deceived.

Q. Why didn’t you stay in the party and continue this fight from within?

A. I didn’t leave party, it expelled me.

Q. What is your plan now? What will you do in future?

A. I will promote and organise the aam aadmi [common people]. I will fight for them. The poor have no political party, all of them are for the rich and the feudal elite. Ninety-seven per cent of the people are poor in this country, but no one takes care of them, no one trusts them. I will organise our own Aam Aadmi Party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Q. But there is a reference against you and you may lose your assembly membership.

A. I won’t lose my membership. I will fight this reference and will prove them wrong.

Q. Do you have any support in the assembly?

A. I have a group of people with me; several MPAs are supporting me. We have our own group of like-minded legislators.

Q. How many MPAs are on your side?

A. I will shortly make an announcement about my group. When I announce it, there will be 30 MPAs on my side.

Q. When will you announce it?

A. Within a week.

Q. If you have so much support, why did you disappear at the time of the Senate elections?

A. Because they alleged that I had taken money. I stayed away from the Senate elections to prove them wrong. I proved that I have not sold myself, that a poor man doesn’t sell himself. It is always a rich man or the feudal who sells himself.

Q. But why did you disappear? Could not you simply have abstained from voting?

A. Because the [political] parties were after me to vote in their favour. I didn’t want to vote for anybody [in order] to prove that I have not got money from anybody. If I had been in the picture, I might have been forced by somebody to vote and their allegations could gain some weight. That’s why I disappeared.

Q. Where were you during this time?

A. I was around but I simply vanished.

Published in Dawn March 11th , 2015

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