Will Imran succeed in controlling intra-party tussle?

ISLAMABAD: A host of in-house and visible developments and activities exemplify deep dissensions and rift within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with Imran Khan consistently struggling to tide over the tussle.

But he has not been fully successful as the turf war goes on unabated between two sets of senior party leaders. His effort is not to peeve any side to the extent that it thinks of reviewing its association with the party.

The PTI’s official line being bandied about by its top leaders is that there is no split, and the difference of opinion is characteristic of a big party. The infighting has intensified at a time when the PTI chairman is bracing up for piling up pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the question of offshore companies identified in the Panama Papers Leaks.

The widening rift apart, it is a hard fact that the PTI exclusively revolves around Imran Khan’s popularity and hardly any other party leader matters as far as its appeal is concerned. It is Imran Khan and nobody else in the PTI, who is the crowd puller.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is the number two man in the PTI after Imran Khan, is on a solo flight in his campaign, “eliminate corruption, save Pakistan”, in Sindh, mostly focused on the interior region. No senior PTI leader except Dr Arif Alvi has accompanied him.

Imran Khan’s joining him on its last day, April 30, is also doubtful. In Thursday’s high level meeting of the PTI in Lahore, some leaders told him that if he wanted to join the movement he should criticise the PPP for its corruption. However, they said if he didn’t do so, the PTI’s standing would be affected, and if he attacked the PPP, their present cooperative relationship would be marred.

Qureshi’s ‘solo flight’ has come under criticism in the internal PTI meetings. Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has emerged as the most vociferous critic of him in its sessions on Thursday and Tuesday.

In one of these deliberations, the two leaders virtually came to blows and exchanged invective, forcing Imran Khan to leave the discussion. During his campaign in Sindh, Qureshi has repeatedly declared that he has not come here to seek votes or support, but just wants to articulate his and the PTI’s position against corruption.

He is making such utterances not to send a negative message to the PPP with which the PTI wishes cooperation against the prime minister on the question of offshore companies. The moment Imran Khan had announced in the PTI’s foundation day rally to launch the “eliminate corruption, save Pakistan” in Sindh, the PPP has harshly reacted. After that, the PTI realised the situation and made every effort not to make any remarks that exasperate the PPP in any way.

Because of his estrangement with Qureshi, Chaudhry Sarwar, who has always concentrated on Punjab while working for the PTI, stays at a distance from its scheduled May 1 public rally in Lahore being held in connection with its anti-government drive on the offshore companies. Aleem Khan is the in charge of this show of power.

Imran Khan has repeatedly defended Jehangir Tareen on the question of loan write off while no other senior leader has come to his rescue. PTI spokesman Naeemul Haq has also offered some explanation on behalf of Tareen. The non-defence of Tareen by any other top PTI stalwart speaks of the internal row.

It was because of the strong fight between Chaudhry Sarwar, supported by Tareen, and Shafqat Mehmood, backed by Qureshi, that the intra-party elections were postponed two weeks back. While putting off the exercise, Imran Khan stated that he was deferring the elections in view of the anti-government campaign against the offshore companies.

Chaudhry Sarwar and Shafqat Mehmood were contesting for the office of the president of the Punjab chapter of the PTI. They were being openly backed by different sets of senior party leaders.