PESHAWAR, Aug 5: The internal differences in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have badly affected its activities and it could face serious difficulties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to launch a reorganisation campaign.
At present, there seems to be lack of coordination between the PML-N and its youth wing, particularly after the suspension of membership of Capt (retd) Safdar, party’s youth wing central president, a few days ago. The youth wing workers are avoiding attending party meetings in protest and have warned the leadership to restore membership of their central president otherwise office-bearers of all units would resign.
A senior leader in the party who requested anonymity said that the PML-N had time and again announced to reorganise its different units on districts’ level so as to launch a forceful anti-government campaign, but it failed to do so.
He said that around 0.3 million people had been registered during a membership drive two years ago and office-bearers had also been nominated for some districts, but the process could not be completed. He said that now the setup would have to be changed again because the associates of Amir Muqam also want to be accommodated on prominent seats.
“Though Mr Muqam is trying to hide his opinion and reservations about the delay in accommodation of people who joined the PML-N under his leadership, the activists are no more ready to remain silent,” he said and added that Mr Safdar had already assured support to the newcomers of his cooperation in assigning party offices to them.
However, he said that party’s provincial president Pir Sabir Shah was not ready to tolerate interference of anyone and wanted that offices of youth wing should be assigned by the party and not by Mr Safdar.
“The central leadership has assigned duty to Senator Ishaq Dar and Chaudhry Nisar to resolve party’s internal differences in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but they will intervene only after collecting basic information concerning the root cause of the problem,”
said the party leader.
The youth wing leaders also have the same complaints that Pir Sabir Shah was avoiding attending the youth wing meetings and thus trying to discourage the new generation.
The source said that PML-N central general secretary Iqbal Zafar Jhagra had sympathies with the youth wing as his own brother Javaid Jhagra was enjoying prominent position among the party youth. “In case the central leadership failed to resolve the
differences the party will be divided into several groups and that will be a big tragedy,” the leader warned.
However, Mr Muqam said that the intra-party differences were temporary and would be resolved soon. “The party is like a home where a difference of opinion always remains, but no one wants to destroy the home,” he said.
He said that it was time the PML-N activists should prepare themselves for the next general elections, as the government had already failed to deliver and there was a great chance of success for the party.
PML-N provincial general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak, however, hoped that the two-member committee of Ishaq Dar and Ch Nisar would be able to overcome the differences.
He said that Mr Safdar should follow the party discipline instead of creating problems for the leadership. He said that the suspension of youth wing president had encouraged the party workers, who expressed satisfaction over the decision taken by
Nawaz Sharif against his son-in-law.
