Daily Times

The sun of 30^th October 2011 set and until it emergence on 31^st, Pakistanis welcomed a new political party on the national political stage. The party that was unknown to millions suddenly started to gain roots in public particularly in youth. Imran khan’s slogan of change proved to be a game changer and apart from considerable seats in national assembly, PTI made provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through 2013 elections.

Now! Imran Khan is continuously targeting government from foreign policy to corruption cases. Panama leaks have not only hit on the financial credibility of ruling party but also provided adequate material to PTI for reshaping its politics. These days, the only concern and slogan of Imran khan is the eradication of corruption in Pakistan.

There is no doubt that PTI challenged the status quo in Pakistani politics. The corruption has become a national issue and public now understands the importance of election commission and vitality of its unbiased and fair management.

The credit to bring the politics from bedrooms to roads is given to Z.A.Bhutto. However, I believe that Imran Khan is the person who made politics an issue of every middle class home. We have seen the young boys and girls became defiant to their families and voted in favor of Imran Khan. History will always give credit to Imran Khan for this chnage.

However, critics feel that till now PTI fails to transform its true popularity into electoral win because of inability to understand the constituency politics. The 2018 election is a test of the claims of PTI e.g. 2013 election was rigged, the Nawaz Shairf has lost credibility and fame in public.

These factors should be taken into account while determining the PTI’s expected performance in 2018 election. The hypothetical approach of PTI– they just dream that widespread popularity on FB will turn on election days to vote them.  In Pakistan, election greatly depends on caste system, religious aspect and trade unions. These people cast vote through consensus and has to be facilitated for vote cast. Here, PTI neglecting the essential ground work.

Selection of candidates – In ticket allocation, PTI failed to impress in 2013 election and does not seem in the mood to present new faces in coming elections. When the senior vice president had to say some months ago that he will leave the party if he would have to get the ticket from Chaurdry Sarwar or Jahangir Tareen. From this, the situation can be well imagined. IK needs to understand that they just want the ticket and position, nothing more. I want to give example of my constituency. Before the election of 2013, Jamshaid Iqbal Cheema, an avid follower of IK ran the member ship campaign and did much work for party but on the time of ticket allocation, Waleed Iqbal received the ticket for national assembly even he had joined the party, some months before election. The man who worked for party in area, just sidelined. How can a person who never remained the resident of constituency or did not have required experience can motivate the public and know the ground realities of “Baradri system”. In NA-1 Peshawar, Imran Khan himself stood and had won the seat but preferred to retain the Rawalpindi’s seat. In re election, the PTI lost the seat to Ghulam Balore due to wrong ticket allocation which IK had himself admitted.

Tickets have to given to new faces with the knowledge of people and their nature in constituency politics. Over dependence on Punjab – From the last election, Khan Sb! Just remained dependent on Punjab but could not get the fruit of hard work. The nature of politics is Punjab is different. Here, the people have adjusted with the Sharif model of development e.g. roads, motorways, bridges.

This time again, all the guns have been set in Punjab like sit ins, protests but at the end, this will be a time waste. Sialkot Lahore motorway is going to be inaugurated next month; metro bus project is entering into final phase and last but most important, media and political parties are not giving attention to the CM PUNJAB rural roads development programs through which all the villages would be linked to mainstream highways. Thousands of kilometers of roads have been completed and remaining will be completed before 2018. In villages, these tactics are the only source to get the likely results. The lack of development in south Punjab was the opportunity to capture the dishearten voters of PMLN but Shah Mehmood Qureshi himself not sure about his future in party.

IK should focus on Sindh, KPK and Baluchistan especially in Sindh after the current Karachi operation, People are losing their faith in MQM and PTI would not get much better opportunity than this to get the votes of Karachi.

The result of Kashmir election in which PMLN won with over whelming majority negates the assumption of IK that PM after panama leaks has lost the credibility in public. PMLN knows that they have relevant cards of metro and motorway in their hands to play in national election.

Under current political scene, PTI doesn’t have enough momentum to translate its popularity into street power. IK should realize that you had come with the slogan of change so please don’t use your party as a ladder to become PM, your persona is higher than the PM status instead tried to invest in party to make it a true institution. IK also needs to distance himself from faces like Jahangir Tareen and Abdul Aleem khan. There is nothing wrong to meet and travel with them but when a true PTI voter see you with such kind of wealthy outsiders, would he believe on the change, which you promise to him. Think about this- until it’s too late. Time is running and two years remain in the election so conduct election in the party as soon as possible so that the fate of all ticket seeker could be cleared and avoid the sit ins against government. You cannot turn the tables for corrupt elements unless you come in assembly with decisive majority. So let’s be in powerful position after that you would not have to rely on PPP and other opportunist to make effective laws. Remember the famous saying, “if you don’t do politics, Politics will do you”.