PESHAWAR, March 25: The Pakistan People’s Party has entered a new crisis after the resignation of the PPP provincial chief Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, demanding immediate expulsion of nine MPAs who, he said, had ditched the party candidate in the Senate election.

Besides him, Sardar Ali Khan, PPP’s defeated candidate, and a close friend of Asif Ali Zardari and, PPP Mardan president Omar Farooq Hoti also resigned.

They wanted to get the nine MPAs expelled who had allegedly voted for independent candidates.

PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, who had summoned all the party MPAs and office-bearers in Dubai on Monday to listen to them on their role in the Senate election, has validated the MPAs’ stand. She also asked Mr Hoti to continue his duty as party president.

But insiders say that Mr Hoti and Mr Sardar were demanding of Ms Bhutto to take disciplinary action against the MPAs who had put the party in an embarrassing situation.

They believed that all other parliamentary groups, who had the same number of MPAs in the House, got two senators elected.

On the other hand, the rebel MPAs claimed that Sardar Ali Khan was not a party candidate. “Ms Bhutto had not nominated him as PPP candidate. We had been asked to ensure the success of Farhatullah Babar and we got him elected,” they said.

Mr Zardari, who had sent his friend with a mission to persuade the dissident MPAs to favour Sardar Ali, also criticized the MPAs at the Attock accountability court. He termed them renegades and pledged disciplinary action against them.

PPP workers also held a demonstration against the MPAs in Mardan and Peshawar and demanded of Ms Bhutto to take action against the rebel MPAs.

The Awami National Party’s decision against three of its MPAs, who had allegedly not voted for party candidates, also placed the PPP and other parties in a political dilemma.

Gohar Khan, a spokesman for the rebel MPA group, told Dawn that on their visit to Peshawar, during the senate elections, neither the PPP acting secretary-general Mian Raza Rabbani nor Naheed Khan had told the MPAs about the nomination of Sardar Ali Khan. He denied that the nine had sold their votes and betrayed Sardar Ali. “Mr Ali was not a party candidate,” Mr Khan said.

Another PPP stalwart and former interior minister, Naseerullah Khan Babar, had supported the nine MPAs’ stand.

Mr Hoti claimed that Sardar Ali was a PPP candidate, but the MPAs wanted him (Sardar) to “buy” their votes.

A spokesman for the Hoti House told Dawn that Mr Hoti, who is in Dubai, had resigned.