ISLAMABAD:
The core committee of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) here on
Wednesday formally decided to quit the National Assembly (NA) and the
provincial assemblies after Eidul Fitr, if scientific voter verification
was not held for the four NA constituencies in a month.
Under Chairman Imran Khan, the forum met here and discussed the future political course in the backdrop of Dr Tahirul Qadri’s proposed drive against the government. The core committee was sharply divided on siding with the “guest” from Canada and coming out of the National and KP assemblies, it was learnt.
Quite surprisingly, the release issued by the PTI Media Cell missed out to mention any political aspect of the meeting. However, sources told The News that difference of opinion was clearly witnessed during the deliberations.
It has been learnt that Dr Qadri was unhappy with the PTI leadership for its cold-shouldered response to his homecoming. And this was reflected in his statement before the media on Monday night that he was grateful to some leaders of the PTI for their support to him. He skipped the name of anyone, even Imran Khan.
“The PTI is reluctant to publicly announce support to Dr Qadri, as it may entail a massive fallout in case he decided to go back to Canada, as he had done earlier,” a senior PTI leader maintained. Another reason was the public perception that Dr Qadri enjoyed the backing of some invisible forces in his anti-government campaign.
He pointed out it was for these reasons that the core committee and even Imran had declared in categorical terms that his party was not joining any grand alliance – a reference to Dr Qadri and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.
“The democratic credentials of PTI can suffer immensely in case it went public in support of Pakistan Awami Tehreek of Dr Qadri,” he noted. Sources revealed that Imran met Dr Qadri and PML leaders in London recently. They claimed during the meeting Imran indicated his willingness to support Dr Qadri. However, strong resistance within the PTI about openly supporting him forced Imran to hold back his supporters from joining the PAT workers on the streets welcoming their leader’s return from Canada.
A founding member and a former central vice president of PTI, Akbar S Babar, told this correspondent that the test of the PTI’s present ambivalent policy towards PAT will come when Dr Qadri announces his final showdown at the D-Chowk in Islamabad. He felt that the PTI has found itself in political no-man’s land. Instead of focusing on delivering in the KP and making an impact in the NA, the PTI, he alleged, had wasted precious time to consolidate the electoral gains made in 2013 elections.
Babar, who remained the lead PTI opinion maker according to Imran until developing differences on alleged internal corruption and lack of accountability in late 2011, said that if Imran thought that by joining hands with Dr Qadri and remnants of the PML-Q he would be the next natural choice to run the country, he might have another rude awakening.
Babar predicted that Imran’s next biggest political rival would be Dr Qadri whose claim to the lion’s share in the next political set-up based on sacrifices to remove the present government would be challenged by the PTI.
Meanwhile, PTI’s information secretary has pointed out that Imran has demanded the prime minister to announce Rs6 billion aid for the IDPs as soon as possible. This is essential if a human catastrophe is to be avoided, says a PTI release.
The PTI core committee expressed grave concern over the human misery of the IDPs from the NWA. She said Imran had informed the core committee that he had asked the PTI Razakars to mobilise and help the Imran Khan Foundation in their massive relief effort already underway.
Under Chairman Imran Khan, the forum met here and discussed the future political course in the backdrop of Dr Tahirul Qadri’s proposed drive against the government. The core committee was sharply divided on siding with the “guest” from Canada and coming out of the National and KP assemblies, it was learnt.
Quite surprisingly, the release issued by the PTI Media Cell missed out to mention any political aspect of the meeting. However, sources told The News that difference of opinion was clearly witnessed during the deliberations.
It has been learnt that Dr Qadri was unhappy with the PTI leadership for its cold-shouldered response to his homecoming. And this was reflected in his statement before the media on Monday night that he was grateful to some leaders of the PTI for their support to him. He skipped the name of anyone, even Imran Khan.
“The PTI is reluctant to publicly announce support to Dr Qadri, as it may entail a massive fallout in case he decided to go back to Canada, as he had done earlier,” a senior PTI leader maintained. Another reason was the public perception that Dr Qadri enjoyed the backing of some invisible forces in his anti-government campaign.
He pointed out it was for these reasons that the core committee and even Imran had declared in categorical terms that his party was not joining any grand alliance – a reference to Dr Qadri and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.
“The democratic credentials of PTI can suffer immensely in case it went public in support of Pakistan Awami Tehreek of Dr Qadri,” he noted. Sources revealed that Imran met Dr Qadri and PML leaders in London recently. They claimed during the meeting Imran indicated his willingness to support Dr Qadri. However, strong resistance within the PTI about openly supporting him forced Imran to hold back his supporters from joining the PAT workers on the streets welcoming their leader’s return from Canada.
A founding member and a former central vice president of PTI, Akbar S Babar, told this correspondent that the test of the PTI’s present ambivalent policy towards PAT will come when Dr Qadri announces his final showdown at the D-Chowk in Islamabad. He felt that the PTI has found itself in political no-man’s land. Instead of focusing on delivering in the KP and making an impact in the NA, the PTI, he alleged, had wasted precious time to consolidate the electoral gains made in 2013 elections.
Babar, who remained the lead PTI opinion maker according to Imran until developing differences on alleged internal corruption and lack of accountability in late 2011, said that if Imran thought that by joining hands with Dr Qadri and remnants of the PML-Q he would be the next natural choice to run the country, he might have another rude awakening.
Babar predicted that Imran’s next biggest political rival would be Dr Qadri whose claim to the lion’s share in the next political set-up based on sacrifices to remove the present government would be challenged by the PTI.
Meanwhile, PTI’s information secretary has pointed out that Imran has demanded the prime minister to announce Rs6 billion aid for the IDPs as soon as possible. This is essential if a human catastrophe is to be avoided, says a PTI release.
The PTI core committee expressed grave concern over the human misery of the IDPs from the NWA. She said Imran had informed the core committee that he had asked the PTI Razakars to mobilise and help the Imran Khan Foundation in their massive relief effort already underway.
No comments:
Post a Comment