PTI Sindh on Sunday expelled six more party members for skipping the Karachi mayor elections and not voting for the party’s supported candidates for mayor and deputy mayor, which it said was “in complete defiance to the party directives”.
Last month, the PTI had announced support announced for Jamaat-i-Islami’s (JI) mayoral candidate Hafiz Naeemur Rehman but cracks had surfaced within the PTI’s city chapter with a group of elected UC chairmen and vice chairmen announcing plans to not follow their party decision and to abstain from the voting process.
Despite the party’s reassurance to the JI and directives to party members to make sure of their presence in the June 15 polls, 32 members did not show up to vote and the absence of these elected members led to Rehman’s defeat and PPP’s Murtaza Wahab’s victory. Following the elections, the PTI on June 17 issued show-cause notices to its 32 elected members of the local government for violating party directives and sought an explanation.
Sunday’s expulsion orders were issued by PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh to Muhammad Idrees, Malik Akhtar Gulsher, Abdul Moeed, Imran Parwani, Salman Khan and Muhammad Ali Raza.
