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Fleeting moments
In August last year, the PTI and the PAT – led by their fiery chiefs – marched on the capital to dislodge the government. A year later, what happened to Sheikhul Islam Prof Qadri is a forgotten story but PTI lawmakers led by Imran Khan returned to parliament.
Returning to parliament meant that Imran Khan finally considered the elected house genuine and legal – instead of fake and illegal. If Khan and cohorts had to return to parliament benches ultimately, what was the saga of dharna, boycott and resignations about?
After the Judicial Commission’s judgement that there was no evidence of deliberate rigging in the last general elections, the PTI chief had no option but to accept the verdict – which he did. After accepting it initially, though, he went back on his words when he met advisers of his inner circle. Imran faces a dilemma: how to keep the party together after the court verdict. Dharna politics cost the PTI heavily, as it lost all six by-elections after the show.
The judicial verdict disappointed quite a few. Prof Qadri landed in Lahore about the same time as the decision. He hoped to stage another show against the government if the JC verdict went against it. Disappointed, he quickly left sultry Lahore for better shores after conferring a few PhD and Masters degrees on students of Minhaj University of which he is the chairman,and son Dr Hussain Qadri the vice chairman. It’s a family outfit, established on land allotted by the LDA, thanks to the Sharifs’ largesse of yore.
However, soon after the court decision, everyone in the upper tier of the PTI seemed to blame everyone else for the indignity the party had to face. These blame games aren’t new in politics. John F Kennedy once said, “Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan”. The party cadres believe there was a conspiracy to misguide and persuade their credulous leader to launch the ‘Go Nawaz 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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