The emergence of a ‘rebellion’ within the PTI – of five MNAs who claim that KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak and his government is corrupt and is trying to sideline Imran Khan – would not be worthy of much comment if it were any other party. The formation of forward blocs is a regular occurrence in our politics. But the PTI has always sold itself as being different to, and better than, other parties. This, if any more confirmation was needed, is not exactly the case. Some of the complaints being made against the PTI government are hardly new. The KP government had tried to defang the provincial Ehtesab Bureau to stop it from investigating corruption within its ranks and it only took the intervention of Imran Khan, seeing a PR crisis in the making, to stop it. Eventually, the government stopped pushing for amendments to the Ehtesab Bureau law which would have curtailed the powers of its chief but the body now knows that political pressure may be applied on it if it pursues the government. Differences between the centre and the province were first publicly aired when Imran had two provincial ministers from the Qaumi Watan Party sacked for alleged corruption in 2013. Khattak was obviously not happy with that and seemed to have got the upper hand when the QWP was introduced back into the government in 2015. Now, the renegade MNAs have accused Khattak of spending development funds in only the three districts of Nowshera, Mardan and Swabi while ignoring the rest of the province.
The five MNAs may have their own motivations for challenging Khattak. But Imran Khan is not pleased about it. He criticised them for violating party discipline by bringing the issue into the open and told them to provide evidence about their accusations. The MNAs, however, have said that going public was a last-ditch effort and they had tried and failed to raise the issue within the party. Since they are members of the National Assembly and not the provincial assembly, there may not be much value to their revolt beyond symbolism. They cannot join a vote of no confidence against Khattak or even undermine him within the KP government. Some of their complaints – like the government’s refusal to transfer powers to elected local bodies – are legitimate and belie the PTI’s claims to practise a new kind of politics. There is nothing that says politics-as-usual than the status quo clinging on to power when the people have already selected their local representatives. The symbolism of their protest shows that the PTI is at the crossroads. It has based its entire persona on a politics of rebellion against corruption and business-as-usual. But in the one province where it has actually been given an opportunity to govern, it is showing that it is not above those same temptations. This is reminiscent, in a way, of the call given by Imran Khan during his dharna for all MNAs to resign. For weeks, they tried every trick in the book to resist having to do so. This is now the impression the public will have of the PTI: a party that can talk a good game but is no different to any other political party around.