Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

Ideological workers break the new inductee bottleneck.

ISLAMABAD:

The results of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s  (PTI) much touted intra-party elections are out, and they have managed to take even the party chairman by surprise.  Despite tough resistance by those who boarded the PTI bandwagon after the Lahore rally, old stalwarts have prevailed. Generally known as the true face of PTI, these old stalwarts are now poised to topple new inductees in the party from senior positions in PTI, including president, vice chairman and senior vice presidents.

“It’s a wake-up call for the new workers, the results of the PTI intra-party elections have arisen the old ideological workers in the party,” said a senior party leader, who did not want to be named. Results show that if the democratic process continues, and elections are held for senior positions in the party, then Imran Khan is likely to see the return of many old faces in the Central Executive Committee, he predicted.

Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Senior PTI Campaigner Asad Omer and Senior Vice President Jahangir Tareen are likely to face increasingly tough resistance due to their unqualified promotion of new inductees during the intra-party elections, added another senior leader.

While talking to The Express Tribune, the party leader said that the re-election of Asad Qaiser as President of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa wing had sent a message for those who had left the party due to intra-party conflict (induction of Musharraf era politicians).

Qaiser had been unceremoniously removed by Imran Khan last year when Iftikhar Gilani and Khawaja Muhammad Khan Hoti had joined the PTI in the province. Both have now left the party. Qureshi, Tareen and Omar had been openly supporting Pervez Khattak for this slot, he added.

Similarly, party leaders quoted the example of Amir Mughal, elected as President of Islamabad, saying that he won the post despite not being in the good books of Imran khan.

They further said that only President Javed Hashmi, whose ill health does not allow him to mobilize PTI workers in elections, encouraged Mughal to continue his struggle. Senior party leaders, in an interaction with The Express Tribune, said that the elections will prove a hard nut to crack for the new inductees, who will have difficulties in holding on to high offices. He said the lack of popularity of new inductees amongst ideological workers worked against them.

Amir Mughal said that party workers were ideological, which is why “only leaders popular with the workers would continue to hold high positions.”

Talking about the results, senior PTI leader Jahangir Tareen said; “This is only the beginning of Tabdeeli (change) - the intra-party elections will prove to be a game changer by showing the contrast between “family” parties and a worker party like PTI.”

Secretary Information Shafqat Mehmood said that PTI had set a historical precedent. “PTI is the only party in the subcontinent which had held real, fair and transparent elections for all party positions.” Sources revealed that a majority of PTI workers were ready to vote for Nadir Leghari for Sindh President, while an old party stalwart Qasim Suri was likely to win the elections for Balochistan President.

Meanwhile, ideological party leaders such as Ijaz Chaudhry, Mian Mehmood Rashid, and Dr Yasmin are already giving a tough time to the Tareen-Qureshi supported duo of Aleem Khan and Ahsan Rashid in Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2013.