Monitor on Political Parties’ Internal Democracy | February 2016

This monitor is meant to identify key developments

during the month on Internal Democracy of Political Parties in Pakistan. In

this issue:

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1) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) –

AJK elections

2) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – Direct intra-party elections

3) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – Mr. Ejaz Chaudhry decides against

contesting for PTI Punjab President post

4) Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) – Membership campaign to form youth wing

5) Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) – Senator Iqbal Zafar

Jhagra selected KP governor

6) Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam – Fazl (JUI-F) – JUI-F and JUI-N merge

7) Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) – Leadership dissolves

party bodies for reorganisation

8) Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) – Party convener and 9-member Supreme

Council announced in an emergency meeting

Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – AJK elections

On February 4, 2016, PTI Chairman Imran Khan

announced the party’s decision to participate in the upcoming Azad Jammu

and Kashmir (AJK) general election at the inaugural ceremony of the party’s

central secretariat for AJK chapter in Islamabad. He also stated that the PTI

AJK President Barrister Sultan Mehmood would be responsible for the party’s

ticket allocation and that a parliamentary board would also be formed under

him.1

PTI Chairman Imran Khan addressing party supporters on February

4, 2016 in Islamabad

On February 24, 2016, a notification by the

Chairman Secretariat of PTI was issued in which the following names were announced

as part of the Parliamentary Board for AJK Election 20162:

  • Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, Chairman
  • Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Member
  • Jahangir Khan Tareen, Member
  • Sarwar Khan, Member
  • Zafar Anwar, Member
  • Sardar Imtiaz Khan, Member
  • Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, Member
  • Deewan Ghulam Mohiuddin, Member
  • Abbas Raza, Member
It is not clear whether this parliamentary

board was formed as a result of consultations at one of the party forums.

It is also relevant to note here that Barrister

Sultan Mehmood had joined PTI on February 5, 20153 and only four days later, was appointed President of the party’s

AJK chapter on February 9, 2015.4 He is also a former Prime Minster of AJK.  

Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – Direct intra-party elections

On February 10, 2016, PTI Chairman Imran Khan

announced that the party’s elections due to be held this year (2016) would

follow the procedure of direct election from the Union Council level up to the

Centre.5

Media reports suggested that there was a deadlock

upon the matter of holding direct election between the different factions of

the party and the Chief Election Commissioner of PTI, Mr. Tasneem Noorani. The

party chairman formed a three-member committee consisting of Chaudhry Muhammad

Sarwar, Mr. Asad Umar and Shah Farman in order to resolve this matter.6

PILDAT met with Mr. Tasneem Noorani on March

02, 2016, at the PTI Election Commission Office in Islamabad and it was clarified

that the intra-party election will be held directly. He further added that one

election would take place per day. However, it remains undecided as to whether

the results will be announced collectively or at the end of each day. Mr. Noorani

added that voting would take place through SMS (1 SIM = 1 vote), and not using

IVR (a vote by phone method) like the last time. Electronic ballot papers will

be messaged to voters, and codes will be assigned to contestants. Voters will

SMS back with the code to register their vote.7

On February 25, 2016, PTI Election Commission also issued a notification that

consisted of ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ for the PTI Election

Coordinators.8

Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – Mr. Ejaz Chaudhry decides against contesting for

PTI Punjab President post

On February 29, 2016, PTI’s Ideological

Workers’ Group leader Mr. Ejaz Chaudhry withdrew his candidature for the

position of PTI Punjab President and announced contesting election for a council

member in the Centre. 9 In the previous party election of 2013, Mr. Ejaz Chaudhry was elected as

PTI’s Punjab President. However, in May 2015, when all the party offices

were dissolved by the party’s Chairman on the orders of PTI Election Tribunal

and an interim set-up was established to run the party affairs, former Punjab

Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar was selected to head the PTI Punjab chapter

as its Organiser.10

Mr. Ejaz Chaudhry, former PTI Punjab President

Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, despite various objections

with regards to his eligibility for the position, is also contesting for the

post of PTI Punjab President. Media reports say that other candidates for the

slot include Dr Yasmin Rashid, Rai Azizullah and Mr. Waleed Iqbal, Mr. Umer

Sarfraz Cheema, Mr. Muhammad Khan Madni and Mr. Shafqat Mahmood.

Jamaat-e-Islami

(JI) – Membership campaign to form youth wing

The JI provincial chief, Mushtaq Ahmed Khan

of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, announced a one-month membership campaign on February

19, 2016 at the Peshawar Press Club, in order to form the party’s youth

wing. As per media reports, the registration process commenced on February 20,

2016 and end on March 20, 2016. Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed Khan further elaborated that

the party had set a target of 500,000 members, of which 100,000 would be from

FATA. Moreover, the entire process of registration would be online and by dialling

a code 9291 via mobile phone.

This youth wing will be in addition to the JI’s

other sister organisation, Islami Jamiat Talba. It will be called the JI Youth

Wing.11 With regards

to procedure of the campaign, Mr. Khan stated that an awareness campaign would

be launched in order to ensure direct contact with people in different localities

across KP to register at least 500 youth in each union council.12 However, it was clarified by the JI secretariat that membership campaign

is taking place across the country.

Pakistan

Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) – Senator Iqbal Zafar Jhagra selected

KP governor

On February 25, 2016, a one-line statement was

issued by the Prime Minister Office’s media wing that said, simply, “The

prime minister has advised the president to appoint Iqbal Zafar Jhagra as governor

KP.”13 A

summary for the appointment had also been sent to the President of Pakistan,

Mr. Mamnoon Hussain.14

It has not come to light what, if any, process

of intra-party consultation could have been behind this decision.

Mr. Iqbal Zafar Jhagra

With Senator Jhagra’s new assignment as

the Governor of KP, his seat in the Senate will be vacated and filled through

the selection of a new party candidate for the senate. It is pertinent to mention

here that Senator Jhagra also serves as the Secretary General of the ruling

party in the centre, PML-N, and which is another post that he will have to resign

from in order to fulfil the role of a governor.  

Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam

– Fazl (JUI-F) – JUI-F and JUI-N set differences aside and merge

Joint Press Conference of the leaders of JUI-F and JUI-N

announcing a merger in Quetta

On February 25, 2016, at a joint press conference

in Quetta, the two factions of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam — JUI-Fazl and

JUI-Nazaryati — announced that all differences between them had been settled

and that they had decided to merge with each other. The Central Amir

of JUI-F Maulana Fazlur Rehman and JUI-N Chief Maulana Asmatullah, along with

another leader Mohammad Hanif, announced the merger of the two factions.

In 2007, Maulana Asmatullah had formed JUI-N

in Balochistan after differences had emerged over policy matters with the JUI-F.

A large number of senior leaders and workers attended the press conference,

including the Senate’s Deputy Chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri,

Maulana Saleemullah Khan, Maulana Anwar-ul-Haq Haqqani, JUI-F’s Provincial

Amir Maulana Faiz Mohammad and Malik Sikandar Khan.15

Maulana Shujaul Mulk, Secretary General of JUI-F

KP, informed PILDAT that consultations regarding the merger took place at the

level of Markazi Majlis-e-Aamla (Central Executive Committee) and Markazi

Majlis-e-Shura (Central Consultative Council) and that majority of

the two bodies were on board with the merger.16

Pakistan

Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) – Leadership dissolves party bodies

for reorganisation

On February 22, 2016, the PML-Q leadership dissolved

all party organisations in Punjab and established three committees for the purpose

of its reorganisation. According to media reports, the decision was reached

at a meeting presided over by PML-Q Punjab President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Mr. Basharat Raja, Dr Azeemuddin Lakhvi, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin,

Mr. Ahmad Yar Hiraj, Mr. Aamir Sultan Cheema and Mr. Tariq Bashir Cheema were

also present in the meeting.

Three committees were formed at this meeting:

one each for upper Punjab, south Punjab, and central Punjab. A time period of

3 months has been given to these bodies for completing the reorganisation of

the party in Punjab. Furthermore, the committees are required to report to the

party leadership every two weeks along with visiting each district under their

jurisdiction and nominating new office-bearers after consulting with local party

leaders and workers. It has not been made clear whether any fresh intra-party

election will take place for this purpose.17

Muttahida

Quami Movement (MQM) – Party convener and 9-member Supreme Council announced

in an emergency meeting

The founder and leader of the Muttahida Quami

Movement (MQM) Mr. Altaf Hussain presided over an emergency meeting that was

called to discuss political and organisational issues, on-going cases in London,

and the overall situation at the national and international level.

As per a press release issued on the MQM website

on January 31, 2016, it was decided during the meeting that Mr. Nadeem Nusrat

would be made the Convener of MQM. 18 Earlier in October 2015, the appointment of Mr. Nadeem Nusrat as Acting

Convener of the Coordination Committee was announced. Mr. Nadeem Nusrat is the

first person to become Convenor of the party after the death of Dr. Imran Farooq

in September 2010.

Along with this news, the constitution of nine-member

Supreme Council was also announced. The council consists of the following members:

  • Convener Nadeem Nusrat
  • Senior Deputy Convener Dr. Farooq Sattar
  • Barrister Dr. Faroogh Nasim
  • Senator Nasreen Jalil
  • Kanwar Naveed
  • Rauf Siddiqui
  • Babar Khan Ghouri
  • Ms. Kishwar Zahra
  • Iftikhar Hussain.

It has not been stated clearly what was the

purpose of this council as there is also no constitutional provision for it.