KARACHI: In a major revolt against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh President Syed Ali Zaidi and his newly announced cabinet in Sindh, senior PTI leader and Sindh Assembly Leader of Opposition Haleem Adil Sheikh tendered resignation from their party posts.
The revolt comes as soon as the party’s new set up for Sindh Province was announced. The development may damage Prime Minister Imran Khan’s efforts to lure major Sindhi politicians to shrink political space of PPP in interior Sindh.
Explaining the reason for his resignation, PTI leader Haleem Adil Sheikh said that he could not work as party leader due to his busy schedule and therefore he has resigned from the party post.
Differences have emerged among the ranks of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in Sindh with top leaders resigning from their posts, hours after the new provincial setup was notified by General Secretary Asad Umar.
According to details, PTI general secretary Asad Umar notified appointments of top office-bearers in the party including vice presidents, deputy general secretaries, and others.
Soon after the announcement, the Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Shaikh, who was appointed a senior vice president of the party in Sindh province resigned from his post.
Ali Junejo also announced to quit his position as vice president, followed by the resignation of the newly-appointed general secretary of Mirpurkhas division, Akbar Ali Palli.
The resignations cited the same reason with newly-appointed office bearers saying that they were unable to perform their duties owing to their extraordinary engagements. They, however, said that would continue to work as an activist of the party.
It should be noted that Haleem Adil Sheikh holds the post of Senior Vice President of PTI Sindh.
Soon afterwards, several other party office-bearers of Sindh also resigned to show dissent against the recent re-designation of the party leadership by Ali Zaidi.
Those who have resigned included Ali Junejo, Advisor to Governor Sindh Imran Ismail, General Secretary PTI Mirpur Khas Division Akbar Ali Palli, PTI’s vice president of Sindh Syed Tahir Hussain Shah and others.
PTI’s Shah had contested elections against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) central leader Khursheed and secured 47,000 votes from Sukkur.
A source in the PTI said that Syed Ali Zaidi did not have any idea about the politics of interior Sindh and his decisions of appointing junior lot of workers against senior offices had annoyed the party’s senior leaders.
“Ali Zaidi has unfortunately damaged the strong front developed to counter the PPP in interior Sindh. There can’t be a disservice to the cause of the PTI what Ali Zaidi has done. It would take years to repair the damage done to the PTI,” the party source said.
