PESHAWAR: The dissident lawmakers belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday decided to support the party chief Imran Khan and seek meeting with him to apprise him about failures of the provincial government and the rapid fall of the party’s popularity among the masses in the province.
PTI’s five dissident members of National Assembly and seven members of provincial assembly held a meeting at the residence of party MPA Yasin Khalil in Peshawar and later addressed a press conference. Those who attended the meeting included MNAs Dawar Khan Kundi, Col (Retd) Amirullah Marwat, Khyal Zaman Orakzai, Sajid Nawaz and Junaid Akbar and MPAs Qurban Ali Khan, Shakeel Khan, Jamshed Mohmand, Babar Saleem, Amjad Afridi and Abdul Haq. Two women lawmakers also attended the meeting.
The dissidents, who refer to themselves as a pressure group, announced to approach the masses by holding workers’ conventions in every district of the province. From their tone, it seemed the dissident lawmakers had softened the harsh stance they had adopted previously in context of the PTI government, particularly Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Asked if they were still demanding replacement of the chief minister, Yasin Khalil said that they would like to give some time to the government to improve its performance and solve public problems.
He said they would attend Imran Khan’s public rally scheduled for August 7 in Peshawar in support of fair accountability in the country.
He said they also endorsed Imran Khan’s 13-point agenda but would use their influence to restore the Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Ehtesab Commission in its original form.
Also, Yasin Khalil said they would continue their demand of empowerment of the Ehtesab Commission and its ability to conduct across-the-board accountability.
He added they didn’t form this pressure group in the party to get positions in the government but wanted Imran Khan to know that people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa aren’t satisfied with the performance of the PTI government.
He denie reports of receiving any show-cause notices from the party.
“We aren’t doing anything wrong or against the interest of the party.
This is what Imran Khan has been insisting of raising awareness in the masses about their rights. There are certain issues that Imran Khan doesn’t know about. We are planning to meet him to apprise him of our reservations and let him know what’s going on in the province,” Yasin Khalil said.
The MPA from Peshawar said people have been complaining about lack of access to the chief minister and his ministers for resolution of their day-to-day problems.
“This and some other issues are some of the major causes damaging the party’s image in the public,” he maintained.
The dissident PTI lawmakers said that since Aftab Sherpao’s Qaumi Watan Party has again become part of the coalition government, its MPA from Lower Dir, Bakht Baidar Khan should withdraw his defamation suit against Imran Khan.
Bakht Baidar had filed the defamation suit seeking damages to the tune of Rs1 billion as he said he was defamed through media through allegation of corruption.
