PTI faces heavy odds

LAHORE:

The opposition alliance on Saturday downplayed its differences with the PTI as insignificant and vowed to support the party.

"Our differences are over unilateral decisions by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister regarding the movement. But we will not withdraw our support for the march and will participate whenever it is held," a source within the TTAP said.

The source cast doubt on the date announced by the chief minister, saying there was strong support within the group for a strategy of attrition aimed at wearing down the government.

A senior PTI leader said such a strategy could prove more damaging to the party than to the government, adding that what the leader described as abduction-style arrests of ministers, lawmakers and party office-bearers, as well as firing at the residences of party leaders, had spread fear among party members.

A TTAP leader told The Express Tribune that differences over what he described as "impulsive decisions" by PTI leaders remained, saying the alliance's leadership regularly engaged with the government and was weakened in negotiations when it was kept in the dark about planned street movements.

He said TTAP leaders Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Nasir objected to the sudden announcement of the delay, but the alliance would support the PTI's long march whenever it was held. TTAP had, in fact, proposed repeatedly delaying the march to wear down the government in Islamabad if the strategy appeared to be yielding results, he said.

Achakzai would join PTI leaders on the protest container in Islamabad, he added.

A senior PTI leader endorsed the account given by TTAP leaders but said the party had little room to maneuver in the movement. "The government is crippling PTI on its home ground. Our ministers are being rounded up, parliamentarians whisked away by unknown men and the residences of more than a dozen PTI leaders have come under fire. All of this is happening on our home ground. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and his team cannot even hold a news conference about it because they are so scared," he said.

He said there was a wave of fear among PTI leaders and workers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. "The PTI cannot exhaust the establishment, so delaying the long march will not work at all," he said.

"If Sohail Afridi pursues this strategy, he could end up being disqualified. The powers that be have many options at their disposal, and this time they are not in the mood to give PTI any political room," he added.

He said the war-of-attrition strategy appeared workable on social media, but the reality on the ground was far more difficult for PTI and the provincial government.

"First, I do not see any long march taking place. Even if it does, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister's march will stop at the first picket line it encounters, where it will stage a sit-in to press its demands," he said.

He said around 20 PTI lawmakers had either been attacked or had their residences targeted by known or unknown assailants, while several had also been arrested. Among them was Charsadda MNA Fazal Khan, who he said was arrested during the day, while Waziristan MNA Muhammad Zubair Khan was allegedly abducted following a crossfire that could have cost him his life.

He said PK-9 lawmaker Sultan Room was also recently abducted, while Mardan MNA Mujahid Ali Khan and PTI MPA from Swat Dr Amjad Ali had faced attacks on their residences.

Even Tariq Saeed, the chief minister's special assistant for home and tribal affairs, recently survived what he described as an abduction attempt by unknown men, he said. Provincial Minister Fateh Khan was also abducted by unknown men, while another provincial minister, Shakeel Khan, survived an alleged abduction attempt but was later booked in a police case, he added.

Rameez Abbasi, president of PTI's Hazara Division, was also abducted by unknown men, he said.

Provincial ministers Shakeel Khan, Meena Khan Afridi and Shafi Jan were also staying at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister's residence for fear of arrest, he said.

"Where MNAs and MPAs cannot even sleep at home or visit their constituencies, how can they rally support for a long march? If an elected government is not safe, how can workers follow its lead in the hope that it will protect them? The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is in deep waters," he said.

The senior PTI leader said the party had been demoralised in Punjab, where it had faced similar arrests and other measures against its leaders and workers for the past three years, and that the same situation was now unfolding in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

"This time around, they have done the very same thing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that Punjab has faced for the last three years. This is a huge blow to our provincial autonomy and the provincial structure of government. It severely affects the PTI government's ability to operate and govern the province despite being in power and having control," he said.

He said no provincial minister had so far spoken publicly about the issue or provided figures for the number of people allegedly abducted or the residences that had come under attack.

"This shows how fearful they are of what is happening and how badly they want to keep themselves out of the crosshairs of the powers that be," he said.

He said successive arrests and other coercive measures allegedly carried out by the establishment had weakened PTI's resolve to mount a meaningful political movement.

Sheikh Waqas Amjad, the party's central information secretary, said the odds were against the PTI but that it would follow the plan announced by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister. TTAP Spokesperson was reached multiple times but was unavailble for comments.