ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has suspended the basic party membership of Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad for violating the August 4 notification that warned PTI members against publicly criticizing party policy.
“Chairman PTI Imran Khan today stated that Justice (retd) Wajihuddin has openly defied Party discipline even after the issuance of the Chairman’s notification of 4 August 2015, clearly stating that anyone discussing internal party matters publicly will be suspended immediately from Party membership,” said a statement issued on Wednesday by the spokesperson for the PTI Chief Shireen Mazari.
The statement said that Wajihuddin Ahmad had defied Imran Khan’s notification and declared that he would continue to air internal party matters in public.
It also elaborated that because Imran Khan always had the highest respect for Justice (retd) Wajihuddin, he held a three-hour long meeting with Justice (retd) Wajihuddin last weekend.
In his meeting with Justice (retd) Wajihuddin, Imran Khan made it clear that “no democratic political party allows its members to discuss internal party matters in the public domain, especially on the media,” according to the statement.
On Tuesday, the PTI Chairman Imran Khan warned party members that those who comment on internal party affairs in public would be stripped off their basic party membership.
“PTI is a democratic party and members have the right to express their opinion within the party,” reads the notice sent out to PTI members from the party’s central secretariat on August 4, 2015.
“Subsequently if any member goes public and challenges party decisions, it is a serious breach of discipline and unacceptable.”
Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad was the head of the two-member tribunal formed by the PTI in 2013 to investigate allegations of irregularities in the intra-party elections.
On March 18, Imran Khan dissolved the tribunal after it gave its detailed judgment in which it termed the intra-party polls seriously flawed.
