Akbar S Babar terms PTI's Intra-party elections a 'drama'

ISLAMABAD: A drama has been staged in the name of the PTI’s Intra-party elections, Akbar S Babar, a founding member of the party has said.

In a video statement Akbar S Babar said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has put the party and election symbol of ‘bat’ on stake as the organization facing formidable problems.

He suggested constitution of an intra-party election commission, setting aside the election.

“The founding members, other leaders and party workers were deprived of their democratic right,” Babar said.

Akbar S Babar demanded running the PTI organization according to the party’s constitution.

He said during the visit of the party’s central secretariat neither the nomination papers nor voters’ details were provided to him. “There is a mechanism of the voters lists and contesting the party election,” he said.

Akbar Babar said that the bogus intra-party election has aggravated problems for the PTI.

“Me and other founding members and Saeedullah Niazi were intending to contest the intra-party election,” he added.

In a press conference earlier, Akbar S Babar had declared the party election as fraud saying that he had reservations about the intra-party election being more likely to be a selection as candidates were not allowed to file nomination papers for the PTI chairmanship.

He questioned what kind of elections were held by PTI where the founding members were not allowed to contest for the chairmanship.

The PTI founding member said that there is no mention of Caretaker chairman in the party constitution.

It is to be mentioned here that Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was elected unopposed PTI’s new chairman, replacing incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan.

Akbar S Babar, founding member of the PTI had decided to challenge the intra-party election.

He said he wanted to take party in the intra-party elections, but the “secretariat staff told us that nomination papers, voter list and election rules do not exist”.