PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Wednesday terminated the basic party membership of former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and defence minister Pervez Khattak.
The party leadership had served a show cause notice on Pervez Khattak on June 21, 2023 and asked him to explain his position within seven days as to why he was contacting the party members and inciting them to leave the party.
Omar Ayub Khan, PTI secretary general, who is also known for changing loyalties, had warned Pervez Khattak that in case his reply was unsatisfactory or he failed to respond, further action would be taken as per the party policy and rules. And since Pervez Khattak refused to reply to the show cause notice, Omar Ayub Khan issued a notice of termination of his basic party membership.
“With reference to the show cause notice served on you earlier dated 21st June, 2023, you have not provided a satisfactory reply within the given stipulated time regarding contacting party members and inciting them to leave the party. Now, therefore, you are served with this notice of termination from your basic membership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Your membership from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has been terminated with immediate effect,” the PTI secretary general explained in the notice.
Pervez Khattak had neither commented on the show cause notice nor termination of his party membership.
People close to Pervez Khattak, however, told The News at that time that he would not reply to the show cause notice as he had reportedly decided to part ways with the party.
Pervez Khattak has not broken his silence yet but there are reports that he is working to form a separate political party and, in this regard, he held fruitful discussions with his likeminded people in the PTI and they are said to have assured him of working together in future.
Pervez Khattak had started his political career from Pakistan Peoples Party and then joined hands with Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao when he quit PPP.
He is one of KP’s senior most politicians. Pervez Khattak belongs to Nowshera district and is a dominant figure of his native district. Even before joining the PTI, he had held key positions in the government. While in the PPP, he was elected district nazim Nowshera and was made provincial minister of irrigation in the coalition government of ANP-PPP when he won the election as an independent candidate in 2008.
He had long old association with Chairman PTI Imran Khan as both studied in the Aitchison College, Lahore, where Imran Khan played cricket while Pervez Khattak was a hockey player.
In 2012, Pervez Khattak joined PTI but lost to Asad Qaiser in the intra-party elections. Those who brought him to the party said it disheartened him and he considered quitting PTI but his close aides stopped him from leaving the party. However, in the same year, elections were held for central positions and he was elected as secretary general of the party by defeating Dr Arif Alvi. According to insiders of the party, it was Shaukat Yousafzai who proposed Pervez Khattak to Imran Khan to be considered for the chief minister’s slot when the party got majority seats in the 2013 general elections and it formed a coalition government with Jamaat-e-Islami and Aftab Sherpao’s Qaumi Watan Party.
And then the same Pervez Khattak removed Shaukat Yousafzai as health minister, reportedly on the instructions of PTI secretary general Jehangir Tareen. Pervez Khattak is accused of either discouraging or creating hurdles for young and talented political leaders in the party. Pervez Khattak as usual avoided to comment on termination of his party membership.
