Tug of war dents PTI's unity

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is once again whipping up a storm by sticking as closely as possible to its plan to march up to the Sharif family residence in Jati Umra and showing its loathing for the delay in probing the Panamagate. But even on its traditional, anti-corruption stomping ground, the party seems to lack the confidence or belief to clinch home a hard argument.

The answer is simple: internally, the party is in disarray. It faces infighting and a fading support of opposition parties. The PTI should never have intended to take on a foe at a time when it is outside the shelter of a cosy womb.



For example, on the eve of the announcement of the date for the Raiwind march came the news of the resignation of Additional Secretary General Saifullah Niazi. This is in addition to the agitation by dissolved wings of the party, especially the Youth Wing, and disgruntled members from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, including the party’s Hazara chapter.

All these rather ‘sad developments’ clouded the workers’ convention that was supposed to make a united stand ahead of the Raiwind show. Background interviews with PTI  officials revealed that years of power struggle to control the PTI had created bitter rifts between Niazi and Tareen. Niazi always considered Tareen as an ‘outsider’ and himself as an ‘ideologue’.

However, PTI’s media department head Iftikhar Durrani dismissed the reports about infighting as ‘mere rumours’.

One by one, Tareen had succeeded in convincing Imran Khan to replace Niazi’s confidants with his nominees. The final nail in the coffin came when the youth, women and labour wings were dissolved on September 11, sources said. They said Niazi was pulling the strings of the Youth Wing, adding that a letter sent to Imran Khan seeking Tareen’s termination was purportedly done at the former’s instigation.

Imran had tried to remove differences between the two in the past but to no avail. The last such attempt was made before the beginning of the ‘Tehreek-e-Ehtesab’ and Niazi was made responsible to organise the rally from Peshawar to Khairabad as well as the Islamabad rally on the eve of Independence Day.

The two events, according to insiders, failed to attract sizable crowds. In addition, there were allegations of financial misappropriations which Niazi had refuted. Commenting on the allegations of corruption, Durrani said the PTI has a finance board that follows a standard procedure of tendering for rallies; therefore, there was no question of corruption. Responding to a question, he said the organiser [Niazi] has nothing to do with financial matters.



Niazi was also upset over the removal of his close aides in the PTI central office, including the sacking of the PTI accountant on allegations of corruption. Feeling isolated, Niazi finally submitted his resignation to the PTI chief reportedly making serious allegations that the party had been sold to Jahangir Tareen, sources said.

Talking about the resignation, Durrani said: “Niazi had resigned due to personal reasons while the rest are rumours.”

Also, it was because of his [Tareen’s] differences with Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi that the intraparty elections were postponed for an indefinite period and Tareen appointed his blue-eyed people to important positions.

Both Niazi and Tareen were not available for comments despite repeated attempts.

The bickering between the two senior leaders has dented the party’s unity ahead of the Raiwind march to a great extant. However, the story does not end here. There are other factors as well.

According to a party official, there is a debate going on in the party over its failure to pull maximum crowd and whether it is because of the absence of the party’s reach at the grassroots level. This has been all the more ominous during the anti-corruption movement.

Moreover, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a group of disgruntled MNAs and MPAs have still been waiting for Imran Khan to address their reservations.



“We are going to meet on Monday [today] to discuss our strategy,” PTI’s MPA Babar Khan said while talking to The Express Tribune. Earlier, the group had also refused to negotiate with Tareen and asked for a meeting with Imran.

Responding to a question, he said the meeting “may take a decision with regard to participation in the Raiwind march.” He said: “No action has been taken to address our reservations.” Babar said his group, which includes six MPAs and five MNAs, had complained about disproportionate disbursement of funds in K-P and concerns with regard to corruption.

“The Ehtesab Act has been amended so many times, yet we haven’t seen any implementation on it,” he added.

“Imran Khan has no one else except himself to blame for the disarray the PTI finds itself in today,” PTI’s founding member Akbar S Babar said while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said discontent within the party is widespread and a large number of dedicated party members have approached him to support the PTI Founders Group that was formed last month with the aim of reforming the PTI and purging it of corrupt and opportunistic politicians.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2016.