PESHAWAR(INP): The dissident lawmakers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have expressed shock over the alleged statement of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in which he threatened to expel them from the party.
A statement by the ‘pressure group’ of the PTI dissidents on Tuesday said that they had convened a meeting in Islamabad on September 3 to chalk out their future strategy.It said the PTI dissident lawmakers held a meeting in Peshawar and criticised Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for his threat that appeared in the media and in which he warned that all the dissident lawmakers would be expelled from the party.
Former provincial minister and PTI dissident MPA from Peshawar Yasin Khalil said five dissidents MNAs, including Dawar Khan Kundi, Colonel (R) Amirullah Marwat, Sajid Nawaz Khan, Khyal Zaman Orakzai and Junaid Akbar and MPAs Qurban Ali Khan, Amjad Afridi, Jamshed Mohmand, Shakil Khan who is also an advisor to the chief minister, Babar Salim Khan and Fazle Khaliq, attended the meeting.
Yasin Khalil alleged that the chief minister used ‘un-parliamentary’ language against him and MPA Qurban Ali Khan, who was elected from Nowshera, the home district of Pervez Khattak.
“Being an old lawmaker, Pervez Khattak should not have used insulting language against us. PTI is a democratic party and being part of this party, it is our right to raise voice against irregularities and wrongdoings in the party and the government,” the dissident PTI lawmakers said in the press release.
They said that a meeting of all the dissident PTI lawmakers had been called in Islamabad on September 3 where they would make some important decisions.It is pertinent to mention that the dissident lawmakers held a meeting recently at the residence of MNA Khyal Zaman in Peshawar and pointed out that the PTI government had failed to honour the promises made with the electorate during the 2013 general election campaign.
The dissidents decided to go to the people, particularly the PTI workers and seek their support against some of their party leaders, particularly Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and inform the people that the KP government had failed to deliver.
However, they postponed their programme after the PTI Chairman Imran Khan intervened and called them to a meeting in Islamabad.It was not clear what Imran Khan told the dissident lawmakers as they remained silent and were not willing to share the outcome of their meeting with him.
In the press conference, the dissidents had publicly admitted that their party’s government had failed to deliver on its promises in the province.Qurban Ali Khan had used harsh language on that occasion and said they wanted to inform the masses that the “PTI government is as corrupt and incompetent as the previous ones.”
