UPPER DIR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Upper Dir, stands divided into groups ahead of the upcoming intra-party elections as its local leaders are organising separate functions and voters` awareness programmes.

The local leaders have formed different groups soon after the party`s central leadership announced to hold intra-party elections.

In the by-election for PK-93, Wari, the PTI here had split into two groups, one following the central leadership`s decision of forming an alliance with JI and the other opposing it.

The localleaders are organising separate meetings to convince workers to give vote to them in the upcoming elections. The party activists are criticising each other in these meetings and even accusing their rivals of damaging the party in the district. Some of the old workers are trying to stop the newcomers` rise in the party.

Mohammad Nawaz, Yamin Khan, Naveed Anjum, Farhad Ali, Mohammad Ameer and Mohammad Nabi have formed their separate groups andseekingsupportofvoters.

Sources in the PTI claimed that some of the local leaders were registering fake voters who never remained members of the party.

`Several expected candidates are registering their relatives and friends as voters though they are not PTI workers,` they said.

The diehard PTI workers say that they would only support those local leaders who have been working for the party`s unity.

Others said that their leaders were fighting for their own survival and not for strengthening PTI in Upper Dir.