REFERENCE your editorial ‘ Politics of expediency’ (March 21). I would like to express my surprise at writing an editorial on one man’s joining the PTI. Like all political parties, the PTI has a cross-section of people of different hues. It is ironic that whereas previously the PTI was being criticised for not having people to put up as electoral candidates, now the party is being criticised by the same media for widening its membership across the country.

What you fail to acknowledge is that it is not who joins the party as long as that person accepts the ideology, the discipline and the programme of the party. Does Amir Liaquat’s joining alter the PTI’s manifesto or discipline? Not at all. In Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, where we are in power for the first time, we set out to implement our agenda of human development through better health and education for all, merit-based appointments, a professional police force, environment protection and devolution of power to the village level — giving people direct control of their lives.

Today KP leads the other provinces in all these areas.

In all fairness the PTI should be judged by its performance and not on who may be joining the party.

Political parties are not social clubs or NGOs with restrictive membership. Political parties represent all segments of society and reflect the nature of society itself — the good and the bad. What matters is that the party ideology and discipline is accepted by all those seeking to join.

Fawad Chaudhry

Central Information Secretary, PTI

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2018