ESTRANGED PTI leader Jehangir Khan Tareen wants his pound of flesh. Even though Mr Tareen insists that he and his group remain a part of the PTI, his decision to nominate ‘parliamentary leaders’ from among the legislators supporting him in the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly shows that he is prepared to go to any lengths to force the hand of his once close friend Prime Minister Imran Khan.

With some 30 MPs and almost 10 MNAs standing ‘firmly’ with him, he has the magical numbers to turn the tables on his leader both at the centre and in the largest province if the government does not stop the FIA from investigating him and his son on multiple charges of money laundering, fraud and corruption. Mr Khan appears to have already caved in to the pressure. The speed of the probe has slowed down with the formation of a one-man commission to look into allegations of injustice against Mr Tareen at the behest of some powerful aides to the prime minister.

Red Zone Files: From Shehbaz to Tareen to Zulfi — has the great game begun?

Call it a split or not, the formation of the PTI forward bloc at the centre and in Punjab has exposed the weak foundations of the party and the government. This should send alarm bells ringing in the ruling party since Mr Tareen’s actions are clearly meant to send a strong message to both the prime minister and the beleaguered Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to desist from hurting Mr Tareen’s business interests or acting against his supporters in parliament. It is also a clever way of showing that he enjoys enough clout within the party to disrupt the PTI’s apple cart if pushed to the wall further. How far Mr Khan can or will go to accommodate him to avert this danger to his frail government remains to be seen. The pause in the inquiry has already damaged the credibility of the prime minister’s claims of across-the-board accountability.

Meanwhile, Mr Tareen’s repeated show of power at his dinners for ‘dissident’ PTI parliamentarians and during his court appearances indicate that he will leave no stone unturned to extort concessions from his old friend. Whether the pro-Tareen parliamentarians will remain a pressure group or move further to forge a deal with the opposition to bring about a change at the centre or in Punjab depends on the extent to which Mr Khan chooses to accommodate them. His party’s former secretary general has cleverly pushed the ball back in Mr Khan’s court.

Should the Tareen group succeed in forcing him to accepting its demand, it could lead to the activation of other dormant pressure groups within the PTI, which would further compromise Mr Khan’s control over the party and his ability to govern effectively. Mr Khan may have skirted the threat to his rule from the divided opposition. But will he survive the threat from within his party?

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2021