{"id":77731,"date":"2024-04-01T01:06:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T01:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/internal-rifts-amid-imrans-detention-embarrass-pti\/"},"modified":"2024-04-01T01:06:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T01:06:05","slug":"internal-rifts-amid-imrans-detention-embarrass-pti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/internal-rifts-amid-imrans-detention-embarrass-pti\/","title":{"rendered":"Internal rifts amid Imran\u2019s detention embarrass PTI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>ISLAMABAD: Internal divisions within the PTI amid the incarceration of its founding chairman, Imran Khan, have become a matter of embarrassment for the party, particularly evident in the discord over the distribution of parliamentary and general body tickets.<\/p>\n<p>Party leaders, while acknowledging such rifts as common in political entities during ticket allocations, express that the absence of Mr Khan has exacerbated these issues.<\/p>\n<p>They lament that party leaders don\u2019t have access to Mr Khan, imprisoned in Adiala Jail, whereas the lawyers who are allowed to meet him allegedly give either partial messages or twist messages according to their own interests.<\/p>\n<p>Considering the situation, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has issued a notification, appointing Raoof Hasan as the \u201cexclusive spokesperson\u201d to streamline communication on policy matters.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote-level-1\">\n<p>Party names Raoof as \u2018exclusive spokesperson\u2019 to streamline communication on policy matters<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The friction within the PTI became starkly apparent during the National Assembly ticket distribution.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1794101\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat alleged nepotism in award of tickets. Even Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the interior minister during PTI\u2019s tenure, alleged that the party\u2019s ticket for the seat of MNA in Rawalpindi was sold for tens of millions of rupees.<\/p>\n<p>Major differences emerged when it was announced that Barrister Ali Zafar would be the candidate for the party chairmanship. On that occasion, Mr Marwat said it meant Barrister Gohar had failed to deliver. Later, Barrister Gohar was again nominated as a candidate for the party chairmanship.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Mr Marwat, who was running the election campaign in provinces at the time, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1806962\">told<\/a> to stop his activities and summoned to Islamabad.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1824595\">suggested<\/a> the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government not to cooperate with the federal government. However, MNA Ali Mohammad Khan said that it would be a wrong decision.<\/p>\n<p>The award of Senate tickets also triggered criticism within the PTI ranks. On social media, a campaign was started against Mirza Mohammad Afridi, who was awarded the party\u2019s Senate ticket. Mr Afridi alleged that some personalities, including the sitting and former MNAs from the erstwhile Fata, were doing propaganda against him.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Afridi was elected as an independent senator in March 2018 on a general seat and later joined PTI. He also became the Senate\u2019s deputy chairman and remained associated with PTI. However, after the last year\u2019s May 9 violent protests, he criticised the riots by the PTI workers. The protests were triggered after the arrest of Imran Khan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2018, I was elected as an independent senator and later supported PTI. It is correct that I criticised the May 9 incident, but what I said, Imran Khan also used the same wordings,\u201d Mr Afridi has stated. \u201cI said that no one should attack military installations and Imran Khan also said that those who attacked military installations should be punished. I never announced quitting the party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Differences were quite visible, before and after the Feb 8 elections, over the issue of joining a parliamentary party.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Marwat claimed that some elements within the party were responsible for making wrong decisions, and the party was deprived of reserved seats because of them.<\/p>\n<p>A party representative, who asked not to be named, said differences within party leaders, especially over tickets distribution, were not unusual.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, we have been facing severe difficulties because our leader Imran Khan is under arrest,\u201d he said, stressing that the issue of party leadership not being allowed to meet Mr Khan had aggravated the situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the past, Nawaz Sharif and leaders of other parties were arrested, but they were in contact with the first and second tiers of their party leadership. However, Imran Khan is not being allowed to meet any political leader of PTI. Only lawyers have been meeting Imran Khan, and they share either partial messages or twist them in their own interests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The PTI leader added that to end the controversies, Barrister Gohar has appointed Raoof Hasan as the exclusive spokesperson to speak on party\u2019s policy matters.<\/p>\n<p>When contacted, Mr Hasan said there was no rift within the PTI. \u201cGiving and sharing personal points of view is a normal routine in all the political parties. However, it has been decided that I will share the party policy, whereas statements of other party leaders regarding party policies will be considered their personal views,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImran Khan is the party leader and only he gives party policies directly or through personalities who meet him in jail. I will be the spokesperson for sharing those policies,\u201d Raoof Hasan said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD: Internal divisions within the PTI amid the incarceration of its founding chairman, Imran Khan, have become a matter of embarrassment for the party, particularly evident in the discord over the distribution of parliamentary and general body tickets. Party leaders, while acknowledging such rifts as common in political entities during ticket allocations, express that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/31082713dbd701d.jpg?r=082914","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}