Resignation rumours rife as PTI in disarray

Workers disillusioned at botched D Chowk protest march

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD:

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur offered on Thursday to resign from the post of provincial president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), amid severe criticism of the senior party leadership over a botched march on Islamabad's D-Chowk earlier this week.

The Political Committee of the PTI met at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar for a post-protest assessment meeting, attended by senior party leaders, including Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan, Information Secretary Waqas Akram, National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub, and others.

Reportedly, PTI founder Imran Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, who was at the forefront of the November 24-26 protest march from K-P to D-Chowk, was also invited to the meeting, but she did not participate in the party's deliberations.

On November 13, incarcerated PTI founder gave the "final call" for the protest march for his release. There were high expectations that the PTI leadership would emerge, descend upon the federal capital and stay put until their demand was met.

The workers had hoped that the leadership would come up with a different plan this time to achieve the objectives, but it all ended in a nightmarish scenario, when many leaders were a no-show, while those present in the march fled the scene as soon as the authorities launched a crackdown.

In the wake of severe criticism of the senior leadership from within the party, the meeting in Peshawar discussed the situation after the Islamabad protest, the possibility of Governor's rule in K-P, where the PTI was in government, and the future course of action, according to sources.

During the discussion, Chief Minister Gandapur offered to resign as the K-P president of the PTI. However, the committee agreed that he would continue in his post and carry out his the responsibilities entrusted in him by the party.

The PTI workers and supporters had begun the protest march on Sunday led by Chief Minister Gandapur and Bibi. They took almost three days to reach Islamabad, as they overcame road blocks, teargas shelling and clashes with law-enforcement agency (LEA) personnel on their way.

In Tuesday afternoon, the first batch of the protestors managed to reach the periphery of the D-Chowk – their final destination – with some even entering the Red Zone. The surge of the protesters forced the LEA personnel to briefly retreat.

For a brief period, they captured the high-security zone, roamed freely and even sat on the containers placed there to stop them. But soon it dawned upon them that they were the only ones standing face-to-face with the LEAs and the senior leadership had stayed behind at a distance.

A lack of coordination between the workers and the leadership allowed the government to regroup and the scene quickly changed when the authorities wrest back the control of the situation. Finally, the much-touted "final call" fizzled out, when the LEAs cracked down against them in the night.

The absence of key party leadership at the scene and a lack of any reasonable strategy added insult to injury. As Gandapur along with Bibi had disappeared from the scene, the protesters dispersed quickly. Within hours, government ministers showed up at D-Chowk and announced that PTI men had "fled".

Since then, discussion filled the virtual spaces, where the party workers lashed out at the leadership and questioned as to why they failed to reach the venue – D-Chowk – to lead from the front, especially, those sitting in the assemblies after winning the elections in the name of Imran Khan.

The anger and instigation is louder among those PTI supporters, who reside outside the country. At home on the other hand, the PTI leadership appears to be clueless and giving explanations that the party workers are unwilling to accept.

The absence of the PTI Punjab leadership remains the centre of the furore. The criticism is so fierce that the bigwigs of the party have started resigning from the party positions over their failure to gather people and bring them to Islamabad.

Reports took rounds on Thursday that PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja had resigned. He was approached by The Express Tribune for his comments but he did not respond. Another name is Sahibzada Hamid Raza.

Raza –the chief of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), under whose banner the PTI's many members sit in the National Assembly – reportedly resigned from PTI's Political Committee. His close aides revealed that he had even decided to resign from the National Assembly and would send his resignation to Imran Khan.

Amid ongoing rumour-mongering, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser was quick to deny that he had been nominated by Imran Khan as the new party chairman after removing the incumbent, Barrister Gohar Khan.

Barrister Gohar was conspicuous for his absence at the forefront of the protest march since the day it started. He only met Imran twice in the Adiala Jail but didn't even come to the protest venue for making even a single speech. PTI's Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram also failed to join the rally.

Disarray in the PTI led the senior party leader in K-P, Shaukat Yousafzai, to voice frustration with the party's central leadership. He accused them of failing to support protesters as well as causing disillusionment among the workers. "They have disappointed us," he said.

Yousafzai, a former provincial minister and the current provincial secretary general of the party, also expressed his concerns over the lack of communication and coordination and demanded scrutiny of why the offer of staging sit-in at Sangjani was rejected and why the D-Chowk was chosen for the protests.

As the news of resignations and reshuffle in the party leadership flashed on TV screens, the PTI leaders gathered in Peshawar – the party's stronghold where it is in power – to take stock of the situation, particularly the aftermath of the protest.

The party sources revealed that PTI's political committee meeting turned into verbal slugfest and, at one point, Gandapur offered to resign from party's provincial position. Meanwhile, they added, Bushra Bibi didn't attend the meeting despite being invited.

As the PTI leadership was being grilled by the party workers for repeating what they did on the previous occasions, one PTI leader rubbed salt on workers wounds, when he told a TV host that he hardly attended any party rallies as he only performed office work for the party.