From elections to nominations
For the longest time it seemed as if PTI was really introducing a new brand of politics in Pakistan. Imran stressed he would have nothing to do with anyone who had “benefitted from the status quo for even a moment”. There would be proper democracy within the party, he promised. There would be shadow budgets, to nudge the government in the right direction. And, of course, there would be internal party elections. But then turncoat after turncoat – those who benefitted from that status quo to no end – started lining up in the PTI and filling its highest ranks.
Then the internal election turned out to be a typical Pakistani election. It didn’t look too good, to say the least, that the party was tearing from within – over rigging in the internal election – just as Khan sb was piling pressure on the PML-N government for electoral fraud. The subsequent episode about investigating excesses in the internal election, where Justice Wajihuddin found ample evidence of palms being greased, within the party, to win crucial seats, made few people in the party look good. Khab sb was perhaps the only person to remain completely unfazed by these developments. Some might call it denial, but not the PTI chief.
And now, in another about turn, it seems the internal election is back on the backburner, where it has been all this time. Now, the PTI chief is going to ‘nominate’ regional heads later this week, in preparation of the agitation planned for after Ramzan. The party has been in desperate need for some order ever since its organisational structure was dissolved ahead of the intra-party elections which, as pointed out earlier, never saw the light of day. Imran keeps gauging PTI’s popularity by the crowds he is able to gather; sometimes at very short notice. But while that is commendable, he must also look into reasons that keep his party from scoring at elections – general, by-elections or LG polls. And if he does, he might notice some gap between his promises and what the party eventually delivers. The road from internal elections to nominations is just one such example.