LAHORE – JAWAD R AWAN - With the emergence of PTI-Haqiqi Group among the party ranks, around 30,000 candidates got go-ahead from the party election commission to contest intra-party polls in Punjab scheduled for January 19, TheNation has learnt.
Sources that some cornered founding members of the party formed this new group ahead of the party elections, however they would reveal themselves after the intra-party polls.
They maintained that PTI-Haqiqi Group members had launched their candidates for the party polls across the province.
They added that the new group in the PTI by making inroads in the existing party camps, had also managed the support of some old members and many of the mentioned members could join the Haqiqi group after the party polls.
The already existing groups in the PTI include Aleem Khan’s Unity Group, Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed’s Ideological Group, Farooq Amjad Mir’s group without any name and Abrarul Haq and Saloni Bukhari’s Tsunami Change Group.
The first group launched in the party by Aleem Khan, which was followed by Mehmood, Farooq, Abrar and Saloni respectively, while the Haqiqi just surfaced during the process of nomination papers for the party polls.
The Haqiqi group desires to transform the party into a camp of the founding members and educated class of both rural and urban centres in a bid to free the party from the clutches of land developer, industrial and land owner feudal.
The Haqiqi members were of the view that no change could be expected from the PTI without freeing it from the forces of status quo.
The MQM, the political force of urban Sindh, has also splinter under the name of MQM-Haqiqi that failed to make its place with her competitor faction led by Altaf Hussain. However, intra-party polls will determine the fate of Haqiqi in the PTI.
Central leaders of the PTI, Javed Hashmi, Shafqat Mehmood and Ijaz Chaudhary acknowledged groupings in the party on several occasions but none of them has the panacea to control the fragmentation among the tsunami tides.
PTI Punjab election commission Shadab Jafferi when contacted said around 30 thousand nominations had been finalised for the UC level party polls across Punjab, starting from January 19. While, 8,500 candidates got green light for the City intra-party polls.
He added that the lists of the final candidates had been displayed in most of the UCs of Punjab, while the remaining would be exhibited on January 14 and 15.