Monitor on Political Parties’ Internal Democracy | March 2016

former MQM loyalist, Mr. Mustafa Kamal made a formal announcement regarding

in August 2013, after which the party had asked him to quit his seat in the

Senate. A statement issued by the MQM’s Central Coordination Committee

in December 2013 had stated that Mr. Kamal was leaving the country due to personal

and family problems. Mr. Kamal was the last serving mayor of Karachi because

after his departure, the elected local government system could not continue

Mr. Mustafa Kamal claimed that the MQM position had deteriorated over the years

because of Mr. Altaf Hussain’s deteriorating ability of decision making,

and that he (Altaf Hussain) did not pay heed to the advice given by party leaders.

He further claimed that the MQM had been receiving funds from external agencies

such as Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and that

Mustafa Kamal formally inaugurated his party in Latifabad, Hyderabad and announced

that the party would be named, “Pak Sarzameen”. Former MQM leaders,

Dr. Sagheer Ahmed, Raza Haroon, Wasim Aftab, Anees Qaimkhani, and Iftikhar Alam

were also present during a ceremony that was attended by a number of male and

has enlisted more than 20,000 members. A number of MQM leaders including members

of defections from the MQM along with a series of allegations levelled by the

defectors raised a number of questions about the internal democracy within MQM.

Unity Group, led by Mr. Jahangir Tareen, announced its support for Chaudhry

Sarwar as its candidate for the PTI Punjab President post in the upcoming intra-party

elections. Speaking at a press conference at a local hotel in Lahore, Mr. Tareen

stated that the Unity Group had consulted almost every leader, including those

belonging to the Ideological Group in order to build a consensus. He further

added that the contest between these two groups is a testament to the fact that

Group, which is led by former MNA Rai Azizullah, announced fielding PTI MNA

Mr. Shafqat Mahmood as its Punjab Presidential candidate. According to media

reports, the group has also finalised Mr. Waleed Iqbal as its candidate for

his candidacy for the PTI Punjab president post, stated that the Unity Group

had decided to field Mr. Jahangir Tareen for the slot of PTI Secretary General

in the centre. A PTI representative informed PILDAT that Mr. Aleem Khan would

still be contesting the intra-party elections, however, the details about the

post would be announced later.⁵ Apparently the emergence of such factions within the political parties

in Pakistan is not regarded as healthy but this phenomenon does confirm the

genuineness of the planned party election and that the party does enjoy a good

deal of internal democracy. The challenge will be to keep the confrontation

between these two and other factions within limit so that the party unity is

that the senior leadership had regretfully accepted the resignation of PTI Chief

Election Commissioner, Mr. Tasneem Noorani, members of the election commission

and some election commissioners.⁶ As per media reports, differences between the PTI Chairman Imran Khan and

Mr. Tasneem Noorani were seemingly irreconcilable, which led to the latter submitting

steadfast on the fact that the PTI Election Commission would decide what the

procedure of intra-party elections would be whereas the PTI Chairman wanted

the election process to be decided by the party leadership. In the press release,

it was clarified that the Chairman and the Party respected the jurisdiction

of the Election Commission at every stage, and had refrained from intervening

in their domain. However, the Party was clear that it was its prerogative to

decide what nature of the upcoming intra-party elections would be.⁷ This is the second significant occasion in which the PTI has again faced

challenges with regards to holding its intra-party elections. Earlier, the rifts

were related to the PTI Election Tribunal’s results that called for dissolution

was a member of the PTI Election Commission, was appointed as interim PTI Chief

Election Commissioner, on the same day that Mr. Noorani resigned, a formal announcement

of his official new position was made on March 30, 2016. The party issued a

notification, which stated that Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak had been appointed

as the ‘Chairman’ Election Commission of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

with immediate effect.⁸ It goes without saying that the terminology used for the head of the PTI

Election Commission is different from the previous one. The intra-party elections

are expected to be held in May 2016, and its schedule shall be announced after

process of intra-party elections in PTI, and the resignation of PTI Chief Election

Commissioner Mr. Tasneem Noorani just before the voting was to start, Chairman

Imran Khan issued the Terms of Reference of the PTI Election Commission for

holding the intra-party elections 2016 along with introducing certain amendments

of PTI, the Chairman used his powers conferred on him by Article X (B) (e) of

the PTI Constitution, which states: “He (Chairman) shall have all

other powers which have not been specifically stated” based on the

fact that the party’s elected bodies are dissolved, in order to amend

the constitution. All the amendments pertain to the election and nomination

of office-bearers of the PTI. With regards to the procedure of election, key

amendment states that “election will be conducted only for the President

Seat from UC to Province and for Chairman seat at Central level”, whereas

earlier the PTI Constitution called for election of all offices from UC to Province

except for one or two appointments such as that of Secretary Finance and Secretary

Information. Furthermore, nominations to various posts like the Vice Chairman,

Secretary General, Additional Secretary General, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice

Presidents, Deputy Secretaries & Joint Secretaries at every level or tier

not paying enough attention to their own prescribed rules of business, which

perhaps, the former PTI CEC had been following all along and hence, may have

rightfully resigned. It would have been in the best interest of the party had

the authorized bodies of the party devised these rules of conducting election

before constituting the election commission headed by Mr. Tasneem Noorani. This

indicates a lack of foresight at the party leadership’s end, which may

not have been the case if only a few people in the party were not calling the

of work of the election commission to devise the procedure of elections as it

is only supposed to ‘conduct’ elections, the apparent lack of clarity

in the TOR’s of Mr. Tasneem Noorani, provoked his resignation.¹⁰ Party leadership had to learn this the hard way after a series of resignations

by the former members of the election commission to provide a clear set of roles

and responsibilities. However, we welcome the fact that the party Chairman has

not only authorised a new person in the place of the head of the PTI election

commission but also devised a clearer system through which intra-party elections

and the previous system certainly appeared to be more democratic in nature,

the Chairman is that of reducing the tenure of office-bearers from 4 years to

2 years and has stated that the PTI election commission (being headed by Senator

Nauman Wazir Khattak) is authorised to extend the tenure up to one year, if

it considers it necessary, in case of general elections, local bodies’

elections, and floods or any other exigency which may render holding of IPE

not in the party’s interest. This raises a key question about the status

of the party’s election commission as to whether it would be considered

the seriousness with which the party is trying to hold intra-party elections

must be appreciated which sets it apart from the rest of the country’s

Khan chaired a party meeting in Peshawar during which it was decided that various

committees would be formed to supervise intra-party elections in different division

consist of incumbent office-bearers of the party along with disgruntled leaders

so that differences could be resolved and new party organizations could be formed

with consensus. Furthermore, it is reported that the meeting was attended by

it was reported that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had asked the Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa leadership to step up the reorganisation process in the province.¹² It must be noted that claims of reorganising the party in the KP province

have been circulating for the past couple of months. The lack of substantial

progress in this regard reflects poorly on the seriousness of the PPP leadership