Should have worked
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was launched on April 25, 1996, by a handful of change-minded individuals. Despite Kaptaan’s honesty, integrity and hard work, the party remained in political wilderness till 2006. In the 2002 elections, only Imran Khan was elected from his home constituency of Mianwali. Musharraf’s PML-Q took control of the country at that time. Finally, Kaptaan convinced his friend and founder member Comrade Ahsan Rashid to leave his lucrative job in Jeddah to come home and develop the party machinery.
By contrast Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) formed his Peoples Party in 1967 and emerged as the largest single party in West Pakistan with 81 seats in the 1970 elections. His party machinery was developed by professionals like J A Rahim, Dr Mubashir Hassan, Mahmood Ali Kasuri, Sheikh Rashid (Sr) etc. He rejected all electables and presented a new team pure and untainted. By the next elections in 1977, he allowed the same old tainted individuals to take control of the party and ended up on the gallows through a judicial murder. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) remained an anti-establishment party till Zardari decided to sell off the ideology.
In the checkered political history of Pakistan only two parties succeeded in developing the party machinery without GHQ support. It was PPP in the sixties and PTI in this century (2006-2011). Rest have all been created and nurtured by the khakis. Despite the fact that PML-N has clashed repeatedly with army chiefs, it remains a right of centre status-quo party. It has created its own disorder and influence in civilian institutions to retain power.
In March 2007, the dismissal of the Chief Justice of Pakistan sparked a country-wide movement for rule of law. The civil society (Concerned Citizens of Pakistan) also joined in. With both Benazir and Nawaz in exile an opportunity was created for PTI for which the party machinery was ready. Comrade Ahsan Rashid in Lahore and Dr Arif Alvi in Karachi with ideologues in Quetta and Peshawar proved to be an effective combination. Zaman Park became the centre of the movement around Comrade Aitzaz Ahsan’s residence. PTI operated from Kaptaan’s ancestral house while CCP gathered at Nehar Ghar close by.
Kaptaan’s tigers came with zeal and energy while logistic support was arranged by Ahsan Sahib as President PTI Punjab. The junoon (passion) for change was visible and properly directed. In the long march against Musharraf on November 16, 2007, PTI and its tigers were prominent. Imran Khan also addressed the marchers in Islamabad. It was an impressive protest with mass mobilisation of people.
Comrade Ahsan Rashid proved to be the Chou Enlai of PTI who operated under the leadership of the Kaptaan. He worked with honesty and dedication to build the party machinery. By 2009 the party had a shadow cabinet, four functional think tanks and also the first 100-Day Plan was announced after a marathon session of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and members of the think tanks. The mammoth “Jalsa” at Minar-e-Pakistan on Oct 30, 2011, launched the movement mainly because of the efforts of Ahsan Sahib and his team. The next test of popularity was at Mazar-e-Quaid on December 25, 2011. By this time the electables had arrived. Only after 56 days of its zenith the movement was hijacked. After the gathering Ahsan Sahib had arranged a dinner at which the old and the new guard shared bread after that it was all over.
The Lahore think tank had prepared policies in the areas of security, economy, agriculture and rural development. Irrigation and water management and local government policy presentations were arranged at Ahsan Sahib’s office in the basement of his house. After the induction of the electables, a joint meeting was called by Ahsan Sahib to fine tune the policies for the creation of a welfare state but instead the two point of views did not converge, the concept of welfare state was unacceptable to the new comers.
The PML-Q splinter hit squad started its work of dismantling the party machinery. Shadow cabinet was the first causality followed by think tank and then shelving of the first 100-Day Plan. In the past GHQ had sponsored and built pro-establishment parties but this time around it seemed that the party of change led by a popular leader was un-acceptable to the powers to be, so a B-team was created to destroy the movement from within.
Then came the intra-party elections (IPE). PML-Q splinter massively rigged the entire electoral process. Even Comrade Ahsan Rashid was not spared. Through intrigue and manipulation, he was made to bite the dust. For the sake of the party, the ideologues did not openly protest. In the General Elections (GE), it was PML-N’s turn to play all its tricks. Kaptaan was in the hospital and the movement was in disarray. The dharna that followed was ill-timed and ill-planned.
Comrades have been fighting for change since October 1958 when the democratic order was derailed. First, it was the 1956 Constitution that was abrogated and then the 1973 version came under attack. Parties like PPP, PTI were created and built by soldiers of change. In three years ZAB lead the comrades to an election victory in 1970 but was overrun by the electables in 1977. Kaptaan emerged as a national leader after fifteen years of struggle (1996-2011) but the movement was hijacked within 56 days (30 Oct, 2011 to 25 Dec, 2011).
Najam Sethi in his programme highly rated Imran Khan’s honesty and integrity but rightly pointed out the lack of party machinery. Very few people know about the organisational strength of PTI on the basis of which it was launched into a national movement. Kaptaan can very easily restore the party machinery by limiting the influence of the electables to their constituencies where they claim support. It seems the story of decline of PTI is very similar to that of the country’s. In Quaid’s Pakistan there was merit, honesty and integrity as it was in Imran-Ahsan led PTI. Naya Pakistan will have to be a replica of the original model, the land of the pure, as it was conceived by the founding fathers in which the establishment and its B-teams should have no role. PTI’s political machinery which was painstakingly built by comrades has to be restored for this crusade of change to start again replacing individual influence with institutional frameworks. The dream of our generation will then be realised.