PTI pretensions

The PTI’s entirely self-created image of a party that is transparent and honest is slowly being exposed as hollow. The party has a habit of announcing major reforms and then slowly backing off from them once it realises that it too may end up in trouble. This is why the party which boasts of hosting internal elections – even though the election winners are conveniently always the people Imran Khan wants – stopped local government members from defying the party leadership. This is also why the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government exempted ministers from accountability laws like the Right to Information Act. The latest instance is the resignation of Hamid Khan, the director general of the KP Ehtesab Commission. Hamid said he could no longer continue his work because amendments to the Ehtesab Commission Act of 2014 had diminished his independence. He has also claimed that the PTI had not lived up to its own promise of rooting out corruption and had corrupt ministers in its own government. After the amendments, the powers of the director general are now scattered among five commissioners, who were previously meant only to discuss policy and not take part in the everyday activities of the Ehtesab Commission. Now these commissioners, appointed by PTI MPAs, will be able to veto any case being investigated by the Ehtesab Commission.

The reason the PTI has rushed through these amendments is clear: it wants to protect its own privilege and corruption. This is a far cry from the party that started so well by even going so far as to fire ministers who were accused of corruption. The PTI has often been criticised for welcoming the same old politicians, and it would retort by claiming no corruption would be tolerated. That claim can no longer be made with a straight face. The amendments to the Ehtesab Commission Act is an example of politics as usual at its worst. For it to be accompanied by the same moral preening that the PTI has trademarked as a political tactic only makes it harder to swallow. It is still not too late for the PTI to revoke the amendments and welcome Hamid Khan back to the Ehtesab Commission. But it is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is well on its way to achieving absolute power.