Party facing difficult task reconciling politics with rhetoric
It takes time for a new political party to mature – and it perhaps takes more time for those who have joined it from other political parties to develop complete loyalty. Such is what troubles the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf: after Fauzia Kasuri left the party in a public standoff, the consequences of the dispute over deciding the new cabinet in the Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Javed Hashmi’s apparent declaration of loyalty to Nawaz Sharif is threatening to spill through the party’s ranks. The debacles over Fauzia Kasuri and Javed Hashmi have raised questions about the credibility and loyalty of the PTI’s top leadership.
When Hashmi, PTI’s designated candidate for opposition leader, spoke in the National Assembly on June 5, he declared that “Nawaz Sharif was and remains my leader as I hold him in high esteem.” The reconciliatory remarks received great applause from the members of the assembly. But it was not so from the PTI rank and file and leadership, whose pressure has forced him to withdraw his words. Addressing a press conference, Hashmi said, “Respecting my people’s objection I take my words back. I bow down to the objections of my party leadership, workers and voters. I just cannot defend what I said if my people are not happy with it.” Hashmi called it a “slip of tongue” and “that he did not mean it how it was interpreted.” Nonetheless, the questions will remain over Hashmi. On the other side, the PTI is having to deal with a difficult coalition in the KP. The issue of distributing portfolios remains outstanding, with the Jamaat-i-Islami still thought to be demanding three ministries, including the education ministry. That the reformist PTI is allied with the Islamist JI and Pasthun national Qaumi Watan Party shall require the party to develop political maturity.
That the dispute over the education ministry has continued into its third week suggests that the PTI to will have to “eat its words” over resolving the issue of corruption within 100 days, like its leader Javed Hashmi had to. The fact is that it is now reconciling its rhetoric with politics, and politics is the more difficult task. The tussle started when JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan met PTI Chairman Imran Khan on May 16 and announced the JI would get three ministries: finance, education and zakat and usher. Pressure from the PTI workers was telling, who insisted that education was a key part of the PTI manifesto and it could not be given to another party. Statements from the PTI and JI leadership suggest that the JI is willing to let the education ministry go, but under what terms is the question. The PTI has asked for another week before announcing the cabinet. Given that the PML-N has announced its cabinet earlier this week, the questions over the PTI’s ability to do politics remain.