PTI faces severe internal rifts in Dir

F.P. Report

TIMERGARA: Internal rift among workers and local leadership of the Pakistan Tehrek Insaf again surfaced in Lower Dir after a strong group led by former district president Bashir Khan rejected the party intra-election held at Timergara the other day.

More than 400 PTI workers from different areas of Lower Dir had elected Ali Shah Mishwani as district president during a meeting held here the other day. Sources privy to that meeting told that dozens of the workers had objected the election terming it unconstitutional, illegal and partial.

On Tuesday another meeting of the PTI workers was held at the hujra of Bashir Khan in Gumbir village which was attended by more than 500 party workers. The PTI former district president and former candidate for NA 34 Bashir Khan, Dr Sarbiland Khan, Haji Inayat Khan, prof ® Ahmad Hussain and others while speaking on the occasion rejected the intra-party election.

They said both the conveners and the leadership had violated party discipline and its constitution. The speakers alleged that some of the party workers wished to pave way for getting tickets. They said the internal rifts among the PTI workers had inflicted huge loss on the party in Dir and that was why it was being confronted with frequent defeats in the district. The speakers said that district and tehsil cabinets would be elected through workers’ consensus and impartial election. They said they would work hard to unite all the disgruntled workers so that the party could achieve its goal.

Sources in the party said it was difficult to bring the disunited workers on a single page. They said the rivals were not bearing each others in Dir. “The party has so many groups in the district,” said a PTI worker, adding the leadership had also kept silence on the matter.