PTI’s estranged leader Akbar S. Babar has rejected the intra-party poll, saying decisions regarding the election of leadership were taken behind doors without workers’ participation.

“We had concerns long before the elections were held. Whatever happened today was a fraud and farce. It was a drama in the name of democracy. There is no concept of caretaker in the party’s constitution,” he said during a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday.

It is pertinent to mention that PTI conducted its intra-party election earlier today where Barrister Gohar was elected unopposed chairman of PTI. He was nominated by Imran Khan.

“The constitution of the PTI stated that the PTI chairman will be elected for two terms for three years each. He will then be debarred from becoming party chairman,” Babar said.

According to him, the constitution of the party was written to introduce such politics where the leadership is elected by the PTI workers.

Babar, who is one of the founding members of the PTI, said that he along with other leaders and workers will approach the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding the party polls.

He warned that the PTI will find it difficult to contest elections as a party and to retain the bat as its electoral symbol, saying that the current leadership of the party will be responsible for it.

He alleged that the founding members of the PTI were not allowed to participate in the elections.

“We went to PTI’s central office a day earlier and requested them to provide us nomination papers, voters list and tell us about the rules and regulations of the elections,” he added.

Calling the PTI intra-party elections a “recycling of waste”, Babar said that such elections will not get the party any new leadership.

Meanwhile, PML-N’s central information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb urged the ECP to take notice of the elections, saying that Khan’s sisters and wife managed and manipulated the intra-party polls.

She alleged that the PTI attempted to deceive the electoral body and party workers by holding back the press release for more than an hour.

“Those who are not giving a level-playing field to their founder members and workers within the party, are demanding a level-playing field in the country,” Aurangzeb said.