PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtun-khwa became the first province where Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) completed its intra-party polls and elected Asad Qaiser as provincial president and Shaukat Ali Yousafzai as general secretary. The election for the provincial chapter of the party was held on Wednesday in Peshawar. Announcing results, election commissioner for PTI’s intra-party election in KP, Qazi Muhammad Anwar said Asad Qaiser bagged 70 votes and former provincial minister Pervez Khattak secured 56 votes. Khattak had resigned from PPP and joined PTI as part of his ‘commitment to fight corruption in the country.’ Murad Saeed, another candidate for the post of president, got 25 votes. The election in KP would bring to end a long fight between the old workers and newcomers over party positions. Asad Qaiser represented the old party workers and succeeded to win their confidence. Shaukat Ali obtained 62 and was elected general secretary against Shah Farman who got 52 votes. Interestingly, Shaukat won from Pervez Khattak-Shaukat Ali group and Khattak lost election for the post of KP president. Other candidates for general secretary Ziaullah Afridi secured 23 and Zahid Hussain six. Khayal Zaman got 61 votes and Junaid Akbar 60 and were elected vice-presidents for KP. Azmat Ali Khan was elected deputy general secretary. Ziaullah Bangash and Jasim Sadat Khan tied for the second post of deputy general secretary on 55, which would be decided on draw. Begum Naseem Hayat was elected president women’s wing and Nadia Sher Khan general secretary. Sajjad Fayyaz Khan became president youth wing. Fazal Hakeem (70), Inayatullah Khan (68), Sajjad Ahmad Khan (64), Asif Zubair Shaikh (62), Muhammad (62), Feroz Khan (61), Akhtar Hussain (58) and Nadeem Alam (58) were elected vice presidents. Dr Soran Singh (62) was elected secretary minority and Akhbar Ali (72) legal secretary. Several other secretaries were also elected.Polling started at 9am and continued till 2pm. Out of 153, 151 votes were polled. Qazi Anwar shrugged off allegations of rigging in polls and said there was no evidence that force or money had been used to secure votes. Talking to media after winning the election, Asad Qaiser said PTI set example for other parties by conducting true intra-party elections. He said other parties had been nominating personalities on party positions. He had already led PTI till 2011.
