ISLAMABAD: Fissures in the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf over its decision to march on the Prime Minister House came out in the open on Sunday when PTI Chairman Imran Khan parted ways with the party’s elected President Javed Hashmi.

“We have different paths to tread on,” Mr Khan said in a speech from atop his container in the red zone. He also said Mr Hashmi had disappointed him.

The remarks followed Mr Hashmi’s criticism of Mr Khan for going against the unanimous decision of the core committee not to march on the Prime Minister House, allegedly after receiving a message from ‘somewhere’.

Mr Khan’s remarks were seen by many as reflection of his long-held desire of getting rid of Mr Hashmi because of his bluntness. On the same occasion, the PTI chief said his party’s MNAs who had not submitted their resignation would also be expelled.

Under the party’s constitution, the powerful core committee can decide to expel an office-bearer from the party.

Earlier, Mr Hashmi said at a press conference he feared that Imran Khan’s sudden change of heart had brought the country to the verge of martial law.

He said the core committee had unanimously decided not to march on the Prime Minister House, but Mr Khan bypassed the decision after receiving a message from ‘somewhere’ at a time when negotiators from the two sides were about to finalise an agreement. “Now I think there is no distance between martial law and us,” he remarked.

Mr Hashmi said the decision against marching on the Prime Minister House had been taken by the core committee but when the party’s Additional Secretary General Saifullah Niazi and Awami Muslim League President Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad conveyed a message to Imran Khan he announced that it was a ‘compulsion’ to go ahead with Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri.

“I am the leader and I have the right to take decisions. If you do not support the idea you may leave,” he quoted Mr Khan as saying. He said he had tried to convince Mr Khan that it was the leadership’s responsibility to protect the women and children who had converged there, but to no avail. He said he tried to say that it was not the way to hold peaceful protests when you wield batons and possess cutters and stones before marching towards key state buildings.

Mr Hashmi urged Mr Khan not to push the country towards anarchy and asked him to turn back with his supporters. He regretted that the PTI chief did not honour the commitment given to him and other members of the party about supremacy of parliament. He also criticised the Punjab government for dragging its feet on registration of an FIR about the Model Town incident and said the delay had led to the problem.

PTI’s Information Secretary Shireen Mazari said the party’s negotiating committee had decided not to move towards the PM House and the decision had also been endorsed by the chairman.

She said the decision had also been conveyed to the Pakistan Awami Tehreek which assured that the protesters would remain peaceful. After that a larger core committee meeting was convened. She claimed that with the exception of Mr Hashmi, all members of the core committee endorsed chairman’s view that the PTI should move forward to the PM House. The chairman, she said, went ahead with the decision of the committee and the democratic norm. The entire PTI leadership stood by the chairman and the decision taken by him, she added.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad has said he had no role in the decision making process of the PTI. Refuting Mr Hashmi’s claim, he said he had not delivered any message to Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014