PESHAWAR: Though Pakistan People`s Party has announced intra-party elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, its policy is still quite vague and the activists are not clear if the members of its provincial core committee and organising committee will also be candidatesin the elections or not.

Several senior leaders have raised questions that if the members of these committees are aspirant to get the key seats/offices in the provincial cabinet then how they would be able to do justice in the process of membership drive and ensure impartiality during the intra-party elections in various districts.

A well-placed source, who is also one of the committees` members, said that there would be no election for the offices of provincial level and the office-bearers would come through nominations in consultation with the central leadership.The proposal of intra-party elections had been given by a four-member committee to the central leadership some four months ago, but it was rejected on the plea that a same formula would be applied to elections in all provinces.

Former provincial president Anwar Saifullah Khan had tried to remove the workers` grievances through replacement of the provincial office-bearers, but he had failed to do so mainly due to the disappointing results of the last general elections in the province.

However, the sitting president Khan Zada Khan managed to dissolve the cabinets of all wings of the party. At present, there is no organisation and the provincial president alone is running the party affairs under the guidance of central leaders, especially Ms Faryal Talpur.

On Saturday, the party announced two committees the organising committee and the core-committee with different mandates. The core committee members include Khan Zada Khan as its head, Rahim Dad Khan, Syed Zahir Ali Shah, Anwar Saifullah Khan, Najamuddin Khan, Senaor Ahmed Hassan Khan, Senator Rubeena Khalid, MPA Nighat Orakzai, Liaquat Shabab, Shujah Khan, Abdul Akbar Khan and for-mer NA Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi.

The organising committee is also headed by the provincial president and its members include Anwar Saifullah, Qalbe Hassan, Syed Zahir Ali Shah, Rahim Dad Khan, Mohammad Humayun Khan, Shuja Khan, Faisal Kundi and Nighat Orakzai.

The representation on these committees has been given on the basis of different divisions/regions. However, Nighat Orakzal is the only woman inducted in both the committees. She is said to have been enjoying close relationship with Faryal Talpur and likely to be assigned important duty in the new setup in the province. The former president of women wing Ms Asma Alamgir was not included in these bodies for reasons best known to the leadership.

It was learnt that the core committee will keep liaison with the central leadership while the organising committee will launch membership drive and hold intra-party elections in different districts within six months.

The source revealed that all the decisions were taken in Islamabad in meetings with Faryal Talpur, but the party was yet to clarify that the organising committee would remain neutral in the process.

The party`s senior leaders in Peshawarhave also appreciated the idea of intra-party elections for giving the workers the right to choose leaders of their choice.

However, they are ready to put up resistance in case any of the former ministers is nominated in the party`s provincial cabinet.

`We are not against any individual, but want the party to implement the democratic system and ideology of Bhuttos, and discourage the corrupt elements who usurped the national wealth, dodged the workers and brought a bad name to the party during the previous government,` said Syed Ayub Shah.

He said that the workers were ready to raise their voice and push the leadership to revive the sprit of PPP, eradicate corruption, ensure merit-based decisions and strengthen democratic system within the party. He said that those who rendered sacrifices, honoured the party`s decisions and remained loyal to PPP should be promoted so that they could implement the party`s manifesto.

When contacted, Fahim Khattak, media coordinator of the provincial president, said that there was consensus among the party people over the holding of intra-party elections and hoped that the process would be completed amicably.