Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) outspoken leader Sher Afzal Marwat Wednesday declined to work with senior party leaders Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub Khan, making the internal rifts within the Imran Khan founding party more visible.
“I refuse to work with Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub […] they didn’t allow me to meet PTI founder Imran Khan [in prison],” the PTI firebrand said while speaking to the media outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
“I was denied meeting the party founder yesterday as well as today,” he added.
Marwat’s remarks come days after the party revoked his nomination for the post of National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman and named Sheikh Waqas Akram for the said office.
PTI Secretary General and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and Senator Shibli Faraz had summoned a political committee meeting to withdraw Marwat’s name, sources said, adding that they suggested Akram’s name as his replacement.
During voting, the sources said, Asad Qaiser, Sheharyar Afridi, Shandana Gulzar, and Zulfi Bukhari came forward in favour of Marwat.
Lamenting that the PTI founder was misguided on every issue, Marwat, quoting Faraz, said that the party backtracked over his name for the PAC chairman post after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) raised objections to his nomination.
“I have been targeted since February 8 [elections] and I have apprised the party founder about it”, Marwat said while stressing that he has no interest in holding offices.
“I would resign from the National Assembly if the [PTI] founder even hints me so,” he added.
Claiming that he picked up the PTI when it had become a “dead horse”, he lamented that he was de-notified as a member of the political committee despite being appointed to the said body by Imran Khan himself.
“I cannot accept [such] disrespect […] I am leaving and will only come back to meet the PTI founder when I’m called,” he said.
He also claimed that the party’s social media team was against him.
Stressing the need for protests, the outspoken politician said that the restoration of the mandate and freedom of the PTI founder couldn’t be achieved without demonstrations.
“Let the nation see whether there is a countrywide protest on May 9 tomorrow or not,” he said.
This is not the first time Marwat has been at loggerheads with other party leaders as previously PTI’s Taimur Khan Jhagra had raised objections over his prospective candidacy from Peshawar.
Last month, he was even engaged in an online spat with Imran’s close aide Salman Ahmad.
