Of fatal flaws

Published June 29, 2024

IT is remarkable how chaos seems to be the only constant with the PTI. Late on Thursday, it emerged that the party’s erstwhile secretary general, Omar Ayub Khan, had resigned from various positions he held within the party. The development followed a confrontation between Mr Ayub and angry PTI supporters earlier in the day after Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Imran’s pleas for suspension of sentence in the ‘iddat case’ were rejected. It also came amidst rumours of the formation of a forward bloc in the National Assembly. It seems that even die-hard loyalists like Hammad Azhar and Murad Saeed were taken off guard by Mr Ayub’s decision: in messages shared on social media platform X, the former asked that Mr Ayub reconsider, while the latter spoke passionately about the need for unity within the party’s ranks. It then emerged that the resignation had been tendered days earlier and had also been endorsed by the party’s jailed chief.

While Mr Ayub framed his decision as necessary because of the responsibilities he is entrusted with as opposition leader in the National Assembly, other party leaders seem to blame him for the PTI’s continuing inability to secure Mr Khan’s release. On Friday, one of the party’s maverick leaders, Sher Afzal Marwat, demanded senior party leader Shibli Faraz’s resignation on the same grounds. It is also worth noting that several former PTI leaders, who had previously parted ways with the PTI, have recently resurfaced to make their cases for re-entry into the party. The party’s most vocal supporters, meanwhile, have been getting increasingly restless and frustrated in the absence of any major breakthrough. Many will closely observe how the PTI moves forward, especially since its differences have now spilled out in the open. As far as it has come, internal discipline remains the Achilles’ heel of the party. How quickly it establishes order within its ranks may be critical to its survival.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...
Rushed legislation
Updated 06 Nov, 2024

Rushed legislation

For all its stress on "supremacy of parliament", the ruling coalition has wasted no opportunity to reiterate where its allegiances truly lie.
Jail reform policy
06 Nov, 2024

Jail reform policy

THE state is making a fresh attempt to improve conditions in Pakistan’s penitentiaries by developing a national...
BISP overhaul
06 Nov, 2024

BISP overhaul

IT has emerged that the spouses of over 28,500 Sindh government employees have been illicitly benefiting from BISP....