Turmoil within PTI

Tabdeeli comes from within

Irrespective of whether one agrees with PTI’s policies, it goes to Imran Khan’s credit that he mobilised and infused a new spirit in a large section of the urban youth which had so far remained apolitical. Within a short while after 2008, Khan built the PTI into a serious contender for power. The PTI was being billed as the only party capable of posing a serious challenge to the PML-N in Punjab in 2018 elections. The party would disappoint its followers if it was to implode from within on account of internal rifts which continue to weaken it. The latest event is the resignation by party’s Additional Secretary General Saifullah Niazi and protests by the party’s youth wing.

Imran Khan himself is to blame for the bad health of the party. Instead of paying attention to party organisation, Khan has kept it in a perpetual state of confrontation with the government and at times with the opposition. Recently there was a perception of a change of heart on Khan’s part which turned out to be a temporary phase and Khan once again decided to revert to solo flight by unilaterally deciding to launch the march on Raiwind.

The PTI had risen on the slogan of change. Imran Khan dismissed parties revolving around families as undemocratic. With the passage of time many are finding that there is little o difference between the PTi and the parties it had been criticising. A hunch for the electables has brought into the party numerous hardboiled conventional leaders who have changed several parties. They have created factions and tried to rig the intraparty polls which could not take place early this year. In April the faction leaders entered into public polemics. The party organisational structure was dissolved but the infighting continues.

It is time Imran Khan concentrates on resolving the feuds within the party. Instead of dissipating his energy on marches and sit-ins, he should save it for the election campaign due to begin next year.