ISLAMABAD: The recent flip-flop by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over its choices of caretaker chief ministers in two provinces has not only put the party leaders on the back foot, it has also provided an opportunity to its rivals to cash in on the situation just ahead of the general elections.

The PTI’s act of first nominating the caretaker chief ministers and then withdrawing their nominations within 24 hours in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab has put the party at odds and it has been facing criticism in the form of jokes and illustrations on social media.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) are warning the nation that it can face such a situation on daily basis if the PTI manages to assume power after the July 25 general elections.

Shafqat Mehmood says his party wants to see ‘clean persons’ in these offices

While the PPP believes that the PTI has been doing such things because of the leadership’s “immaturity” and “lack of decision-making power”, the PML-N sees a conspiracy behind it.

PML-N’s information secretary Mushahidullah Khan said the PTI wanted to see a delay in the general elections after getting reports that the PML-N was still the country’s “most popular party”.

He said the PTI had the role in the nomination of caretaker chief ministers in two provinces and in both the provinces, it had adopted the same strategy in order to create “confusion and chaos” in the country.

“The PTI is not behaving like a political party. They are not interested in seeing democracy getting roots in the country,” the PML-N leader said, adding that the PTI was no more interested in contesting the coming general elections after seeing the recent pre-poll surveys.

Mr Khan alleged that the PTI was bent upon “sabotaging” the democratic process and wanted to create chaos before the next elections to provide a justification for the poll delay.

Former information secretary of PPP Punjab Naveed Chaudhry said the PTI leadership was not capable of “foreseeing and assessing” the political situations and that’s why they were showing “immaturity” in every matter.

“They don’t know as to how a political consensus can be developed on any political issue,” he said.

Mr Chaudhry said the PTI was already known as a party that existed only on the social media and “it seems that after coming to power, all its decisions will be social-media driven”.

When contacted, PTI leader Shafqat Mehmood refuted the claims of the PML-N and the PPP that his party lacked decision-making power.

He said that the PTI knew that the caretaker chief ministers only had limited powers after the recent amendments to the Elections Act, but they wanted to see “clean persons” in these offices.

Mr Mehmood said the PTI had approved the appointment of the caretaker chief ministers with all sincerity considering them suitable people, but it had to withdraw the decisions after seeing public response through media and social media as it wanted that there should not be even a shadow of doubt about them.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2018