Go’ movement. Imran and Qadri performed for 126 days but the ‘umpire’ never moved.
The PTI is beset with divisions from within. Two of its respected leaders, Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmad and Hamid Khan have fallen from the party chairman’s favour. Justice Wajih had suggested Imran Khan should suspend the party membership of Jehangir Tareen, Chief Minister KP Pervaiz Khattak, Aleem Khan etc on charges of manipulating votes in the internal polls of the party.
Instead of proceeding against them, Khan suspended Justice Wajih’s membership. And reacting to Hamid Khan’s public statement that some people in the PTI had hijacked the party, Imran put a ban on members criticising party policies in public. Both steps contradict Khan’s lofty democratic ideals. Some wonder why Justice Wajih, an upright and honourable man who had declined to take oath under Gen Musharraf’s PCO, joined hands with Imran Khan in the first place. Hamid Khan has since returned to the party fold but Justice Wajih stands his moral ground.
Independence Day is significant for the PTI on two counts. Around this day last year, Imran kicked off his Azadi march for Naya Pakistan. And about the same time a year later, Justice Wajih, once the PTI presidential candidate, addressed a breakaway faction of the party.
Justice Wajih and other like-minded people are disenchanted with the party chief for running the party affairs in a supercilious manner. And that the party has been hijacked by moneyed mafia.
Imran Khan is ambitious and impatient. He is possessed with an overwhelming desire to be the prime minister and believes premiership had been denied him by underhanded means. That’s why one often hears: ‘If I were the prime minister, I would have done this or that’. The educated circles, however, are more interested to know whether Imran lost some of his vote bank because of his dharna movement or gained by it.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.
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