PESHAWAR, July 28: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid is trying to regain its past position in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but differences of leaders and lack of coordination among office-bearers is the main hurdle to its reorganisation in the province.
Lack of interest on part of central leadership towards the PML-Q reorganisation can easily be judged from the fact that it had kept the provincial president’s office vacant for four months after Amir Muqam joined PML-N on April 6.
Though Qasim Shah of Mansehra was later named provincial president, he has since been struggling to bring together party workers and leaders.
Besides, a vast majority of PML-Q activists is also reluctant to extend cooperation to the new president as they have yet not been contacted by him.
During his first visit to the capital city after his naming as the provincial president, Mr Qasim was scheduled to address a news press conference on July 18.
However, it was cancelled and he met party leaders and workers at a local hotel.
The media didn’t properly cover the visit due to lack of coordination and Mr Qasim had to return without naming the provincialoffice-bearers of the party.
Those in attendance were mostly from Hazara division. Leaders from Peshawar, including MPA Nighat Orakzai and PML-Q Lawyers’ Wing central president Justice (r) Azam Khan, didn’t show up.
Afterward, PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain appointed Nighat Orakzai as the provincial information secretary and Intikhab Chamkani general secretary but even then, the provincial office-bearers have yet to establish contacts with each otherfor the party’s reorganisation.
A senor party activist said Chaudhry Shujaat and general secretary Mushahid Hussain Syed had different views about the appointment of office-bearers and that major role in the said appointments was played by the latter.
He said Mr Mushahid had once visited the house of Intikhab Chamkani but kept his decision regarding appointment of people secret. He added that a number of senior activists in Malakand, Mardan and Charsadda had adopted the wait and see policy.
When contacted, Ms Nighat said: “I am thankful to Chaudhry Shujaat who assigned me the duty of information secretary but the provincial president has so far not contacted me nor has he given me any task regarding reorganisation of the dispersedactivists.”
She said no one had been contacted by the leadership for the appointment of the provincial president and that it was necessary because the party saw a vacuum when Amir Muqam departed four months ago.
“The provincial president is bound to contact party colleagues so that they could come together in an impressive manner but he brought only friends to Peshawar and avoided contacting the rest of leaders belonging to different divisions of the province,”she said.
The PML-Q information secretary expressed reservations about the process of appointing office-bearers and appealed to the central president to take personal interest in resolving the matter by giving party offices to competent people.
She said Justice (r) Azam Khan remained very loyal to the party and served it very dedicatedly but he had been neglected.
Mr Qasim couldn’t be contacted despite repeated attempts.
However, his son and former MPA Mazhar Ali Qasim said lack of coordination among provincial PML-Q office-bearers would be over soon.
“We visited Hazara, Malakand and Peshawar districts to meet party people and also approached the party’s former electedrepresentatives,” he said, adding that several senior party men were in contact with him and his father.
He said his father was on an official tour to Chitral to discuss party matters with MNA Prince Mohayuddin and MPA Ghulam Mohammad, and would later visit Peshawar to plan the party’s reorganisation.