KARACHI: After a gap of six-years, the ruling party, which is registered as the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P), held intra-party elections ostensibly to fulfill legal requirements as the Election Commission of Pakistan had warned over 100 parties to hold party elections otherwise they may be disqualified from contesting the forthcoming general elections.
The intra-party polls were held at the Bilawal House, Karachi, on Friday.
No statement was issued from Bilawal House. However, sources at the Bilawal House and at Chief Minister’s House confirmed the intra-party polls.
The election was conducted by the party’s election commission headed by Law Minister Farooq H Naek.
According to sources, Makhdoom Amin Fahim was elected as the president while Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was elected as general secretary of the party.
In Punjab, Manzoor Wattoo was elected as provincial president while Tanveer Ashraf Kaira general secretary. In Sindh, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah was elected as president and Taj Haider as the general secretary. Anwar Saifullah was elected as president of the PPP Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Sadiq Umrani was elected as president PPP Balochistan, while Baaz Muhammad Khan Khetran was elected as General Secretary.
It may be recalled that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had recently warned about 114 political parties, including the ruling PPP to conduct intra-party elections before the announcement of polls’ schedule, or else they would be barred from contesting election.
The sources said that the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians held the last intra-party election in 2006, though the party’s manifesto called for holding intra-party polls after a gap of two years.
The Political Parties Act of 2002 enshrined two mandatory conditions for contesting general elections namely submission of ‘statement of accounts or assets’ of the party and intra-party polls.
