PTI’s push to the right

Its one constant feature

PTI has wrapped itself in a number of cloaks in its crusade for Naya Pakistan. There was a time when Imran Khan had no patience for “anybody who has ever benefitted from the status quo”. Then everybody saw the party “grow leaps and bounds” once “electables” were allowed into the stable. Also, once upon a time Imran was for leveraging parliament for all things politics – since it was in keeping with the spirit of democracy. Then Imran led the long dharna to oust the government and completely wrote off the House.

More recently, PTI has also gone back on its much trumpetted intra party elections; the chairman now prefers nominations for party leaders instead of elections so everything is in place for the post-Eid anti-government agitation. Yet the one thing that has stayed constant about the party’s outlook, no matter which politician from whichever party manages to plant himself however close to Imran Khan, is its constant push to the right of centre. Its positions become more conservative with time. And in the present circumstances its decisions like allocating Rs300m to Darul Uloom Haqqqania are not only controversial and divisive, but also potentially dangerous.

Not too long before Zarb-e-Azb senior PTI leaders would refuse to call TTP a terrorist organisation on live TV. Then PTI stood not only for talking to the TTP, but also lobbied for the Taliban to have an office in the federal capital. Of course the KP government knows Maulana Sami said – when heading the government team to talk to TTP – that the “Taliban are not fighting to destroy Pakistan, they are fighting to save Pakistan”. It follows, therefore, that the decision to dole out hundreds of millions to the seminary – instead of routing these sums to schools, universities, hospitals, roads, etc – is either a snowballing of the push to the right, or a calculated political move to blunt opposition from the conservative religious bloc. Either way, such policy posture does not bode well for people who really believe in, and fight for, aNaya Pakistan. PTI should reconsider some of its more controversial policies, especially since it is again counting on the people to make its case politically.