Is the party finally growing up?
PTI’s decision to form a parliamentary alliance with the PPP is a new turn in Imran Khan’s roller-coaster politics. Only months ago the party was tarring the PML-N and the PPP with the same brush. It would have been particularly humiliating for the PTI’s parliamentary group to approach the Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shah who had been accused by Imran Khan of indulging in corruption. This would be the second comedown on the part of the PTI after its earlier decision to withdraw the resignations of its legislators and return to the Parliament and Punjab and Sindh Assemblies whose legitimacy it had challenged.
The move comes along with a number of setbacks for the party, the latest being the rejection by the Election Tribunal of a petition by Party’s candidate in NA-118 Hamid Zaman challenging the victory of PMLN’s Riaz Malik on charges of rigging and manipulating the elections results. The move indicates the PTI has finally come to terms with the ground reality and is willing to work within the system for the rest of the National Assembly’s current life. One would welcome the realisation provided this is not a temporary shift. With the PML-N enjoying numerical superiority in National Assembly, no opposition group can play a meaningful role in the House on its own. What is more, it cannot force the government to rectify its course whenever found to have gone off the track.
To be able to develop better working relations with other parties the PTI has to learn to speak parliamentary language. It needs to build bridges with those who disagree with it instead of finding motives behind their stand and maligning them. Again, instead of insisting on the fulfillment of its inflexible demands, it has to learn to negotiate and bargain. The PTI has a number of talented legislators in its fold who can provide vital inputs in the formulation of policies. Their talent should not be wasted in costly and fruitless sit-ins.