Incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has ordered immediate expulsion of firebrand leader Sher Afzal Marwat from the party owing to his continued violation of party discipline, sources said.
The directives were issued during a meeting between the PTI leaders and ex-premier Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail during the hearing of the GHQ attack case. The leaders who met the PTI founder include Omar Ayub Khan, Shibli Faraz, and Senator Ali Zafar where they complained about Marwat’s behaviour at the Swabi public gathering last week. The former ruling party had organised a protest rally in Swabi against alleged election rigging on February 8 where Marwat was reportedly not allowed to come on the stage, however, he managed to deliver a speech after being called to the stage by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.
Addressing the rally, Marwat, in a cryptic way, said that “bad people” always became helpful during “bad times”, but some “good people in good times” have zipped their lips.
Pointing towards Gandapur, the lawmaker said that the chief minister would speak on behalf of people like him.
The sources revealed that the PTI founder expressed outrage over Marwat’s unnecessary speech at the rally. He ordered the party leaders to immediately issue a notification to terminate the basic membership of Marwat. The Imran Khan-founded party is also expected to seek Marwat’s resignation as an MNA. Last month, the PTI issued a show-cause notice to the lawmaker for violation of the party discipline for his remarks against the party’s Secretary General Salman Akram Raja. He was issued another show cause notice in May last year and ultimately his basic party membership was cancelled and he was asked to resign as MNA. However, the action was not taken against him after ex-PM Khan pardoned him.
The notices were served to Marwat for making harsh comments regarding the negotiations between the PTI and the coalition government, whereas, he also questioned Raja’s legitimacy as the party secretary general without having contested the intra-party polls.
