LAHORE – The long rumoured fissures between members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are becoming visible with each passing day as the party candidates are not willing to be interviewed by a parliamentary board headed by party’s Punjab president, Abdul Aleem Khan.
According to well-placed sources, the candidates who contested elections from Lahore in 2013, or are willing to contest the forthcoming elections, refused to appear before the parliamentary board on Tuesday.
The members who skipped appearance include MNA Shafqat Mehmood, Dr Yasmeen Rashid and others, signalling that there was a grouping within the party, posied to take reins of the country, according to political analysts.
PTI members who are expecting party tickets for the upcoming polls but avoided being inspected by property tycoon-turned-politician urged the senior leadership to constitute a new board comprising seasoned politicians.
They also claim that a thorough audit of party funds, especially collected for the recent Minar e Pakistan rally should be conducted.
The disgruntled members suggest that the candidates for National Assembly tickets had provided Rs 0.5 million while the aspirants for the provincial assembly ticket had contributed Rs 0.2 million for the rally.
Interestingly, Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, who left PPP to join PTI was also instructed to contribute, though she was on a foreign tour at the time of April 29th mega show.
The incident coincides with the exchange of harsh remarks between top guns of the party: Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Jahangir Tareen, who clashed during a recent core group meeting of the party.
According to media reports, the conflict stemmed out of the discussion surrounding Rai Hassan Nawaz, a PTI leader, who was disqualified by the apex court in 2016.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi challenged the position of Rai Hassan Nawaz in PTI, saying he had objection over post and participation of Nawaz in the party meetings.
Upon this, Jehangir Tahreen interrupted, saying Qureshi’s remarks were indirectly aimed at him. The issue was resolved after Imran Khan stepped in.
