In a widely anticipated move, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif on Friday dissolved party’s entire organisation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), forming a 15-member organising committee for reorganisation and fresh election of office bearers within two months.
According to a notification issued by party’s central secretary general Ahsan Iqbal, the organising committee is headed by Shah Ghulam Qadir, the former regional secretary general, and includes former regional president Raja Farooq Haider as one of the 14 members.
The remaining members include Chaudhry Tariq Farooq from Bhimber, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed from Mirpur, Raja Naseer Ahmed Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Malik from Kotli, Raja Mushtaq Minhas from Bagh, Chaudhry Muhammad Aziz from Haveli, Sardar Abdul Khaliq Wasi from Poonch, Dr Najeeb Naqi from Sudhnoti, Ms Noreen Arif and Barrister Iftikhar Ali Gillani from Muzaffarabad, Dr Mustafa Bashir from Jhelum Valley, Raja Muhammad Siddique and Syed Shaukat Shah from Kashmiri refugees based in Pakistan.
Except for Mr Malik and Mr Wasi, the rest were part of the cabinet in the previous PML-N government. Of these 15 members, only Mr Qadir and Mr Haider have returned in the July 2021 elections from Neelum and Jhelum valleys, respectively.
Interestingly, despite being the regional chapters of the national parties, both the PML-N and PPP AJK have their separate organisational bodies in the Kashmiri refugees’ constituencies in Pakistan as well as in Europe, UK, North America and Gulf countries.
The PML-N notification declared that all wings of the party as well as its organisational set-up in Pakistan and overseas would also stand dissolved.
Setting the terms of reference, it stated that the reorganisation and election for new office bearers would be held on the basis of divisions, districts, electoral constituencies, union councils, wards and polling stations in consultation with the members of the organising committee within two months.
The committee would keep the party president and secretary general informed about progress of reorganisation work on a regular basis, it added.
The PML-N was launched in AJK in December 2010, with Mr Haider and Mr Qadir its chief organiser and secretary organising committee, respectively. At the first convention in Mirpur in April 2012, Mr Haider, Mr Farooq and Mr Qadir were elected unopposed as president, senior vice president and secretary general, respectively.
However, afterwards the party could not hold a second convention, notwithstanding muffled voices for the same during its government in AJK from 2016 to 2021.
The differences in the PML-N AJK chapter came into the open late last month after Mr Qadir, Mr [Tariq] Farooq and Mr Minhas overturned the nominations of some United States-based PML-N workers for overseas party offices by Mr Haider during his private USA tour, saying that the move was not only "in contravention of a consensus on re-organisation but had also caused irreparable damage to the party’s goodwill.”
According to PML-N sources, at a meeting held in Kashmir House on July 31 last year, it was unanimously decided that all organisations and wings of PML-N AJK, including those in the 12 constituencies in Pakistan and abroad, would be dissolved to pave the way for fresh [party] elections and that the new bodies would be constituted at constituency, polling station/ward, union council, district and division level within two months.
The meeting was chaired by Mr Haider and other participants included Mr Farooq, Mr Minhas, Mr Naqim, Mr Aziz, Mr Wasi and Mr Malik.
Decisions of the meeting were conveyed to both Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif on the party's letterhead with signatures of all seven participants.
Before the controversy over nominations became public, Mr Haider and Mr Farooq had also separately called on Nawaz Sharif in London where the latter had reportedly asked them in detail about the reasons that had led to the party's vanquishment in AJK polls.
When contacted, Mr Qadir maintained that the reorganisation and fresh election of office bearers was a unanimous demand of all party workers that had been met by the central leadership.
“We will accomplish this task within the stipulated period by taking every worker on board,” he vowed.
Meanwhile, Friday’s decision had also triggered a volley of comments on different social media platforms between the supporters and opponents of the dissolution of the party's organisation, mainly the “demotion” of Mr Haider.
However, according to a brief statement by his spokesperson, Mr Haider had urged all party workers to avoid “confrontational comments and maintain unity in their ranks.”
The spokesperson said Mr Haider would give a detailed response after his return from the UK on Dec 16.
Tariq Naqash
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