Pakistan PM reorganises ruling party, appoints new office-bearers after local election defeat

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday appointed his close aides to key positions in the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, only a day after abolishing its administrative structure in the wake of a defeat in the first phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The PTI suffered a major setback in the electoral contest held in 17 districts on Sunday after losing the coveted mayoral seat in the province which it has ruled since 2013, making the prime minister attribute his party's weak performance to "wrong candidate selection."
He was critical of senior party officials for overlooking merit and distributing election tickets among their family members during a consultative meeting focusing on the issue on Friday.
The prime minister also dissolved the party's administrative structure and removed its chief organizer and other officials from their posts.
The new appointments on Saturday were announced by the country's information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Twitter.
"After dissolving intra-party bodies, Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan has announced the party's new organizational structure," he said. "Asad Umar will be the new PTI secretary general while Pervez Khattak from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Zaidi from Sindh, Qasim Suri from Balochistan, Shafqat Mehmood from Punjab and Khusro Bakhtiar from Southern Punjab will presidents of their respective regions."
Hussain announced in a separate tweet the prime minister had also appointed Amir Mehmood Kiani as the party's additional secretary general.
The PTI party faced intense criticism after losing the local government elections since opposition politicians maintained the prime minister and his team had been rejected by the masses.
The ruling party, however, dismissed such assertions while blaming the administrative flaws and nepotism for its defeat in the elections.
The prime minister assured his party supporters earlier this week he would "personally be overseeing" the next phase of the electoral contest, adding that his party would "come out strong."
Hussain also told the media on Friday that PTI was the only national party which was competing with different regional factions.

Pakistan PM reorganises ruling party, appoints new office-bearers after local election defeat