LONDON:
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced that the party’s intra-party
elections will be held on Sunday 13th April in 12 regions of the United
Kingdom and Ireland.
PTI leader Imran Khan had
directed the postponement of the elections about two weeks ago to first
review structure for its overseas chapters. A ‘Special Committee’
comprising of Asad Umar, Shafqat Mehmood, Saifullah Niazi and Dr Arif
Alvi was tasked to review functioning of international chapters and
submit recommendations for improvements.
A source in the
PTI informed that the ‘Special Committee’ submitted their report to the
PTI Central Executive (CEC) and Core Committees (CC) on 17th March in
which several recommendations to strengthen Office of International
Chapters (OIC) were made as well as recommendations on how to cater to
the needs of party’s overseas chapters.
The PTI CEC and CC
showed their satisfaction over functioning of the UK chapter and it was
agreed that it was already in compliance with all the recommendations
made by the committee. It was recommended that no reason existed to
further put UK intra-party elections on hold and it was important that
new schedule should be announced.
It has been announced
that the election voting day will be Sunday 13th April; Monday 31st
March will be the membership cut-off deadline; and Sunday 6th April has
been set as the candidate panel nomination deadline. The elections will
be held in 12 regions which include London, East of England, South East,
South West, North East, North West, West Midlands, East Midlands,
Wales, Yorkshire and Humber, East of, Scotland, West of Scotland.
Each
region will elect a body comprising of president, vice president,
information secretary and general secretary. Thereafter, national body
for UK consisting of president and general secretary will be elected
from amongst regional elected representatives.
These are
3rd intra-party elections in UK and the chapter has become an important
overseas arm of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf which is contributing
financially as well as in policy making of the party. Britain has played
an important role in taking the PTI in the top league of Pakistani
political parties. Its UK chapter is considered a leading overseas
chapter in terms of all organisational aspects. The PTI has the
distinction of being the only Pakistani political party that is now
holding elections on time in a proper democratic manner. The MQM in the
UK has a disciplined chapter like it has in Karachi. The PPP and the
PML-N are fast becoming irrelevant because both parties lack any
democracy in their ranks and these parties are divided in various
factions. PTI has become probably the strongest overseas Pakistani party
with more than 3,000 paid-up members, mainly youth. As compared the
parties lag far behind.
