‘Electables’ are a reality

Before the 2018 general elections, it was Jahangir Khan Tareen, who persuaded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to adopt a pragmatic political approach and embrace realism over idealism.

His calculated move to include ‘electables’ from South Punjab to forge seat adjustments with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and to get independent candidates from Punjab and Balochistan led to an unexpected surge in the PTI strength in the National Assembly and helped the party form a coalition government, which ended in April 2022.

Back then, Tareen – a sugar baron from South Punjab – used all his influence within and outside the PTI ranks and ensured that his vision triumphed over others.

And Thursday vividly brought back all those memories.

Tareen was once again seen applying the old formula on his newly-formed party, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), that he has launched ahead of the 2023 general elections, while sitting along with those considered ‘electables’.

After coming into power, many among the then PTI bigwigs stood against Tareen, criticising his “working style”, blaming him for not helping the government decrease sugar price and even calling him a person ‘addicted to money’.

But now, he not only embraced those who have recently abandoned the PTI and politics in the wake of May 9 violence but also made them believe that they being the ‘electables’ could win the next elections and achieve what they couldn’t in during the PTI’s tenure.

“Electables are a reality; they possess the power of winning election,” Aamer Mehmood Kiani, who had served as the health minister during the PTI government, led by Imran Khan.

“No doubt, the PML-N and the PTI have big vote banks but ‘electables’ have their own vote bank,” he added. “We are not claiming that we would win 200 seats but we will try and give our best in the upcoming polls.”

Kiani, who had recently left the PTI, said that it didn’t matter if the IPP faced defeat in the coming elections.

Some 27 years ago, he recalled, he being a PTI candidate had lost his first election and managed to secure only a few votes but didn’t give up and stood by the PTI’s philosophy, its core values and the manifesto.

When asked why he and many others returned to politics just days after leaving the PTI and the politics, Kiani said that a politician couldn’t achieve anything if he stayed out of politics.

Politically, he continued, one couldn’t achieve big things alone because execution needs a team; thus the IPP. “To say that we have joined the IPP is incorrect; it’s [IPP] our brainchild and a product of our collective thinking.”

Kiani said that there were offers from PML-N and PPP but he and several others preferred to stand with Tareen and Aleem Khan, keeping in view their contributions and sacrifices for the former ruling party.

While commenting on the downfall of the PTI and beginning of a new political career with a new party, Kiani said that he gave 27 years of his life to the PTI but “it is time that we learn to co-exist”. “This country needs evolution and not revolution” as promised by PTI leadership, he said.

Without naming anyone, he said that when someone simultaneously assumes the role of the judge and the executioner, when one doesn’t move ahead with collective wisdom and choose the collision course with the institutions, things would become really difficult. Strong institutions, he stressed, were the key to national progress.

Another IPP leader, who has recently left the PTI, said on condition of anonymity that he joined the Tareen-led party because one needed to stay in the system to bring change. He admitted that it was difficult for him to leave the PTI and see it going down.

“Because of a few people,” he said, “we are witnessing the whole system falling down.” When asked about the reasons of the PTI’s downfall, he pointed out that as soon as Imran came to power in 2018, he stopped listening to them.

He remained surrounded by unfamiliar people among the party ranks, he said about the former prime minister. “Apart from Imran’s stubbornness and ego,” he continued, “his desire to quickly comeback to power led to the current state of affairs.”

Admitting that PML-N and PTI have huge vote banks of their own, he said that many more bigwigs would soon join the IPP and the party through the ‘electables’ could rise to a position where it could attract voters, who were previously promised change by the PTI but never got a glimpse of it.

Two other prominent names, who have joined the IPP, were approached for their comments but they excused, saying that they didn’t have anything to say at the moment.