Imran’s charisma shatters Chaudhrys’ political clout

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf of Imran Khan – being seen by the PPP and PML-Q as a political front that would split PML-N’s vote bank in the next election in Punjab – has now started eating away at the PML-Q, as a majority of the people joining the PTI belong to the PML-Q. The PML-Q, already facing fissures in its ranks since the ouster of former president Pervez Musharraf in August 2008, is fast forwarding towards its logical end and mass defections from the Chaudhrys’ camp to the PML-N and PTI are going to reduce the party to an irrelevant political entity. The competition with the PTI has forced the Sharifs to open PML-N’s doors to former comrades of Musharraf. After defections from the Q-League to the unification bloc, PML-Likeminded and Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), PML-Q heavyweights are now falling prey to Khan’s “tsunami”, with critics calling Imran’s party a “rebirth of PML-Q”.
A number of former district and tehsil nazims from across Punjab, like Sardar Ghulam Abbas, have already joined Khan, but the departure of some sitting and former parliamentarians, including Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Sikandar Bosan, Ishaq Khakwani, Senator Jamal Leghari, GG Jamal, Senator Mohabat Khan Marri and Owais Legari has shattered the PML-Q’s hopes of survival. The PTI’s progress by leaps and bounds is not only damaging the PML-Q, but has also created rifts within dissident bloc of the Q-League (PML-Likeminded), as the group has divided into pro-PML-N and pro-PTI camps and PML-Likeminded steering committee chairman Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri is also set to endorse Khan’s slogan of change.
Commenting on the massive defections from the Q-League, a central leader of the PML-Q said if the Chaudhrys failed to control them, the proposed seat-adjustment between the PPP and the PML-Q for next election could not be reached.
“A majority of sitting MNAs are affiliated with the Chaudhrys as they fear that their immediate defection would deprive them from huge development funds being provided by the prime minister … once development schemes are completed, they will not hesitate for a minute to become turncoats,” he added.
The PML-Q leader claimed that in the next election, there would a be real contest between three major political parties in Punjab, the PPP, PML-N and PTI.
The PPP is also worried about PTI’s rapid gains, particularly in southern Punjab, considered a PPP stronghold. The joining of PTI by some PML-Q stalwarts from the south like Bosan, Tareen, Khakwanis and Legharis would actually deprive the PPP of its vote bank and some sure seats of the national and provincial assemblies.
The PPP leadership is also perturbed that the mass defections in the Q-League would ultimately sabotage Zardari-Shujaat plans of seat-adjustment in the next election.
The anxiety in the PPP ranks forced President Zardari’s sister, Faryal Talpur, to seek permission of the Chaudhrys for letting those PML-Q leaders join the PPP who were sitting on the fence.
“She asked the Chaudhrys that if their members of the parliament and provincial assemblies, as well as other leaders, were not in their control and joining either Nawaz or Imran, the PPP should have the permission to induct some fence-sitters as the defections from the PML-Q was just giving benefit to the common rivals,” a source said.
In response, the Chaudhrys told Faryal that they would soon control the defections in the party and the PPP must not steal their men.
Political analyst Hassan Askari Rizvi said the PML-Q leaders were defecting from the party as they were already angry with the Chaudhrys for one reason or another. “They have found a new leader in the form of Imran Khan and an opportunity to start afresh their political journey,” he said, adding that most of the PML-Q men joining the PTI were experiencing a sense of alienation in the Q-League.