PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Denied Hammad Azhar
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PTI Secretary General l Omar Ayub denied Hammad Azhar’s resignation, which was given to the party as the Punjab president. In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), Ayub stated, “Hammad Azhar, you have worked tirelessly for the party and PM Imran Khan sahib. Resignation not accepted.”
Azhar still stood by his decision despite Ayub’s disapproval, mentioning his inability to work effectively under circumstances where he had “zero authority but complete responsibility.” He expressed his gratitude to Ayub for his trust in him; however, he added that, in the end, his choice was final.
He also showed that a limited volume of his movements was a contributing factor to the resignation. He pointed out that his restrictions on his movement and non-access to the PTI founder Imran Khan on top of these, were the major elements affecting his withdrawal.
A day before this statement, Azhar had drawn attention to the situation that aroused his dissatisfaction, particularly with the way decisions were being made inside the province of PTI. He stressed lobbying as one cause that often pushed the decisions aside or these were made in a manner that worked parallel to the merit system, his objection to Khan’s limited access was also raised.
As an illustration of Asghar’s PTI Lahore president relegation, which, according to him was an outcome of lobbying, he brought forth. He contended that such actions, taken without a proper communication with Imran Khan, are not based on the party’s merit-based process.
Azhar was also the one to mention the fact that even in the situations when issues were not reported to the party’s founder Imran Khan, some PTI members coming from various regions still could manage to bring up their situations to the public. If we cannot get the required guidance and the opportunity to present the correct state of affairs to the leadership, we will never be effective in our leadership, he said. Azhar stated his resignation is not sudden because of similar reasons in the past but he did it deliberately.
Azhar turned in his resignation in spite of it being rejected and the reasons behind his decision and his concerns indicate the ongoing problems within PTI’s internal organization and it also refers to Punjab in particular. His withdrawal from the post leaves the question of the party’s strategies in addressing these challenges open.
