Daily Times

It seems the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is finally making one last major push towards assuming control over the country and the upturn in new members joining the party has breathed life into the party’s election campaign. The momentum is well and truly on their side; however, the recent announcement of the candidates selected to contest the upcoming elections has raised a few eyebrows, even within their supporters.

In Punjab, the PTI has granted almost a third of all their tickets for the national assembly seats to members that joined the party only three months ago, while ten have been awarded to members that joined around ten months ago. One nominee even joined the party only a day before the names of the ticketholders were announced. A glance at the nominees for the provincial assembly reveals a similar criterion for selection; that they be electable. It is needless to say that this move did not sit well with party loyalists who have given so much for the party’s cause and have spent years helping the party ascend to its lofty position today.

In its early years, the PTI promised institutional reforms across the board, with transparency and accountability being the most important factors in their future government. They vowed to end corruption, as well as dynastic politics, with more power being granted to the youth and the common man. However, the pitiful irony is that the PTI, and its leader Imran Khan, have instead decided to betray all their principles and their supporters, by choosing simply to win and engage in the same old politics of their opponents. This is further evidenced by his decision to contest five seats himself, ignoring young PTI workers, who could have been provided an easy route into the country’s politics.

In Punjab, the PTI has granted almost a third of all their tickets for the national assembly to members that joined the party only three months ago, while ten have been awarded to members that joined only ten months ago.

Assuming they succeed with their ambitious but strange strategy, they will be left with a team consisting of turncoats, power hungry politicians and people they do not trust. It is not pragmatic to trust people that swore allegiance to somebody else only a few months back. How can you hand the reigns of the country to the very people that exploited it in the past? The PTI was supposed to be a party of change, but if they keep recruiting the same old tired faces, then this statement does not make sense anymore. Some believe that Imran Khan and his central community will be able to keep these forces in check; however, you cannot simply rely on a strong centre to ensure the whole country runs smoothly. One of the biggest problems we face today is that we do not have competent people across the board. Keeping powers centralised will only add to our woes and nothing else.

PTI’s recent “recruitment drive” and their ability to woo members of other parties has added to the assumption that they are all set to win the upcoming elections. However, the detrimental cost of losing the trust of some of their oldest and most ardent workers might have longterm repercussions that they cannot imagine at the moment.

The current opinion of the PTI hierarchy seems to be that a ticket from the party works like a baptism of sorts, where the person blessed with it is cleansed of all the ills they might have committed in the past, and they are born anew. This is real life, however, and people rarely ever change this much, let alone within a few months. The PTI, it seems, has lost the plot.

Imran might be an untested leader, but his moves remind me an awful lot of the leaders we just seemed to have gotten rid of. Hopefully, the PTI can see sense, and rectify this situation pronto.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court

Published in Daily Times, June 23^rd 2018.