Islamabad, Dec 25: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has named a new organisational structure for the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party, a day after the previous bodies within the party were dissolved following an embarrassing defeat in the first phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The announcement was made by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry through his official Twitter account. Chaudhry said Planning Minister Asad Umar had been chosen as the secretary general of the PTI and also named the presidents for various provincial divisions. According to the list: Defence Minister Pervez Khattak has been named PTI in charge for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi for Sindh; National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri for Balochistan; Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood for Punjab; and Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar for South Punjab.
Chaudhry had announced dissolution of the previous organisations in a press conference on Friday after a meeting of the party’s senior leadership that was chaired by the Imran Khan, Dawn reported. Imran Khan had expressed dissatisfaction over the party’s performance in the KP local body polls where it suffered an embarrassing defeat.
He said that according to the results of the elections in village councils, the PTI was still the “biggest party in the province”. Imran Khan after consulting with the party leadership decided to dissolve all organisations from the centre to the tehsils. Chief organisers and all office bearers of the PTI were removed from their positions.
Chaudhry said that a separate committee had been constituted which would include himself, and others, including KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Khattak, Communication and Postal Services Minister Murad Saeed, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar, Bakhtiar, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Umar. The committee has been tasked with proposing a new constitution and party structure. In the elections held in the 17 districts of KP on December 19, the PTI, which has been in power in the province since 2013, showed a dismal performance, conceding ground to the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F).
According to the provisional results of 47 of the 63 tehsils declared by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the JUI-F won 17 seats of mayor/chairperson while the PTI came in second by securing 12 seats.
Independent candidates grabbed the third highest number of seats at seven, followed by Awami National Party at six, PML-N at three and Jamaat-i-Islami, PPP and Tehreek-i-Islahat Pakistan bagging one seat each. (UNI)
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