——– PTI political committee’s decision triggers tug of war among party leaders
——– Imran earlier picked Marwat for the slot, party leadership opposed nomination
ISLAMABAD: The political committee of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) replaced Sher Afzal Marwat with Sheikh Waqas Akram for the slot of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman.
Following the development, Marwat and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Hamid Raza are no longer in contention for PAC chairmanship.
PTI founder Imran Khan had earlier nominated Marwat for the post. The former premier later nomi-nated Hamid Raza for PAC chairmanship after party leadership criticized Marwat’s nomination.
Last week, PTI Secretary General and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, advocated for Marwat’s appointment, citing his endorsement by the party’s founder.
Asad Qaiser, Waqas Akram, Junaid Akbar, and Zain Qureshi were among the ones to oppose Marwat’s nomination and were lobbying for the PAC chairmanship. Besides, other senior leadership of the party also opposed Imran’s decision.
Sources reported that PTI’s political committee met in Islamabad on Friday night under its new chair-man to discuss the nomination. Nine of the 19-member committee headed by Omar Ayub voted for Shaikh Waqas, and seven for Marwat.
Marwat termed the move against him a ‘conspiracy by the PTI establishment’ and deemed his popu-larity as the reason. –Agencies
