Pakistan - PTI’s bankruptcy

The NA-122 by-election was advertised as many things in its run-up by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI): a referendum on the governance of Nawaz Sharif’s third tenure as Prime Minister, a vindication of Imran Khan’s constant campaigning against alleged rigging of the 2013 general elections, a battle for the future direction of politics in Punjab (and by extension Pakistan) and, as with all things PTI, a harbinger of change. However, outside of the frenzied supporters of the two duelling parties who treated the by-election as an existential matter, no one was really convinced that squabbling over a paltry single seat of parliament was worth all the hype. For many a PML-N victory in its historically strong constituency was a foregone conclusion, and even if PTI pulled off a favourable result, as it nearly did, one additional seat does not a government make. But if there was a hope attached to this by-election by concerned observers, it was that this election — conducted under stringent watch (except of course in the crucial matter of campaign financing) – would finally bring about the end of PTI’s counterproductive and derailing politics of mudslinging allegations. Alas, now that the dust of the by-election has settled, it has once again been frustratingly proved that PTI under the leadership of Imran Khan is a party thoroughly lacking in maturity, a democratic mindset,imagination and ideas. To employ the trite cricket analogies favoured by the national team’s former captain, it is a party that only knows one way to bat — i.e. swing wildly with its eyes closed — and has proved unable to adjust its technique according to changing playing conditions. Like a broken record, the rhetoric of PTI in the aftermath of the election has been the oft-repeated mantra of election rigging despite there being no credible evidence nor fingers being raised by concerned neutral parties. Immediately after the election, Imran Khan — sounding increasingly more paranoid — tweeted that PTI was not prepared for the apparently more refined and subtle rigging tactics of the PML-N and vowed that his party will be more vigilant the next time. Letters have been written by the losing candidate Aleem Khan and PTI Punjab’s organizer Chaudhry Sarwar to the Returning Officer (RO) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) respectively arguing for a recount and claiming that the election suffered from many irregularities like the transfer or deletion of names of prospective voters from the constituency’s list. The ECP has denied these allegations and has countered that registration of voters was frozen days in advance of the election, according to the rules. Despite the pre-election promise to accept the election’s result with dignity, it seems that PTI will cry foul until the moment it gets precisely what it desires. This lack of maturity and respect for due process reflects a party incapable of pragmatism or evolution, and the blame for this arrested development lies squarely on the shoulders of PTI’s egotistical leader.

After 2011, Imran Khan and his party became for the first time a genuinely credible player in the arena of politics ever since the inception of PTI in the mid-1990s. This belated elevation to the political mainstream for the charismatic sportsman came on the back of sloganeering for change, a promise to stand up against the status quo and quash corruption. Imran Khan was hailed by many analysts, who may have had an issue with his politics, for at least one thing: he mobilised a segment of society (the youth, the women, the upwardly mobile urbanites) that had been disillusioned by the politics of Pakistan and energised them with conveniently vague ideas of a ‘revolution’. A party completely lacking in any coherent ideology but one teeming with optimism, PTI came to reflect for its myriads of supporters whatever hopes and dreams they wished to project onto it and its main star. So PTI was being advertised by its multitudes of voracious supporters in different forums as a party of several contradictory values: a progressive party, an Islamic religious organisation, an anti-corruption party, an anti-status quo party, a pro-business party, a pro-welfare party, a pro-army party, an anti-imperialist party. In truth, the malleable ambiguity of its image was simply because it has no distinctive vision and now that the sheen of Imran Khan’s past achievements and personal charm has started to wear off and the prophecy of change has failed to materialise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the reality of the party has become abundantly clear. It was and it remains a centre-right party, not dissimilar to the N-League, and the only endgame the PTI has in mind is for Imran Khan to come to power as if it is his inalienable destiny. The PTI is therefore a transparently unfit party with a politically bankrupt core.