PTI's internal conflict, internal chaos, organizational crisis, and its political strategy have weakened it politically.
PTI's internal conflict, internal chaos, organizational crisis, and its political strategy have weakened it politically. Whatever strategy the Long March had, it proved to be quite flawed. PTI's central leadership is trying to save itself by blaming the failure of the Long March on former Chief Minister of the province, Sohail Afridi. If Sohail Afridi was responsible for this adventure, how can the central leadership itself absolve itself of this failure? Because this entire leadership was supporting the Long March.
Similarly, while the failure of the talks between the PTI leadership and the government during the Long March is being blamed on the government, the inflexible attitude of the PTI leadership also failed the talks. The various factions that are formed against each other, from the central leadership of PTI to the provincial leadership of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have also damaged the party's affairs. It seems that the party chairman Barrister Gauhar also does not have the authority to make party decisions at the party level that he should have. Many people in PTI are also in contact with non-political forces behind the scenes, but despite all their contacts and good relations with non-political forces, they have not been able to provide relief at any level to the founders of PTI or the men imprisoned in Kot Lakhpat Jail and political leaders.
Even today, PTI has a vote bank. But the PTI leadership must admit that they have not created any major public struggle in the political arena and have not put any major pressure on the government. could not create. Especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his own government has been in power for the past thirteen years, his party has been deprived of the public struggle due to the political constraints of power.
Similarly, in PTI, there was an objection to the earlier appointment of Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas in the National Assembly and Senate by the founder of PTI, and now in the recent core committee meeting, a demand has also come up for a change of opposition leaders. There was also an objection to holding a long march or not. If one group was in favor of the long march, the other group was against it and its position was that in the current circumstances, we should not adopt a policy of direct confrontation and such a policy of confrontation would not be in the party's interest.
It is not correct to say that the current leadership of PTI did not hold direct or secret talks with the government and the forces behind it to create a favorable environment for itself in the political situation. But no major progress has been made in improving matters and reconciliation. For example, we hear news that how can reconciliation be possible on the basis of the minus one formula, that is, the founder of PTI not being accepted, political silence, a language ban for a few years or exile or transfer outside and the de facto transfer of party leadership to the new leader. Because one basic thing must be understood that in the past, politics has been based on minus one in national politics but it could not be successful. Imran Khan will not accept such conditions. The current leadership of the party also believes that the vote bank belongs to Imran Khan and that is why his leadership and the members of the assembly do not have the capacity to agree on the minus one formula.
It must be admitted that despite all the internal conflicts in the PTI, the party is still standing and its MLAs are connected to the party despite all the difficulties because they believe that without Imran Khan, they have no political status. But the PTI must also admit that while it could not create much pressure on the government with its large public power, there are also aspects of weakness in its parliamentary politics in the federal and Punjab or at the Senate level. In particular, the weak role of the Punjab parliamentary party in the parliamentary forum has been seen. It is understandable that they faced stiff resistance from the government and practically their political activities were also banned. But they could have used the parliamentary forum better under their strategy.
There is no doubt that PTI's digital media, despite the restrictions imposed on it by the formal media, has made good use of it and has kept its resistance alive. But some elements have used the power of the same digital media negatively, which has caused practical damage to PTI at the institutional level. In principle, a balanced policy is required to improve relations between PTI and the government, and eliminating any party, putting it on a wall, banning it, or using the minus one formula is not a solution to the problems. Because reconciliation is not possible by imposing an agenda or on the basis of dictation, and reconciliation is linked to mutual acceptance. Similarly, the policy of anti-state accusations against any party also weakens internal politics.
As far as the internal or organizational conflict of PTI is concerned, we keep seeing this story at the level of various political parties. Because our parties are weak in the context of internal democracy and here individuals have the power compared to democracy. The founder of PTI has been in jail for many years and does not even have access to his party leaders. Therefore, the story of the internal conflict of the party is also understandable. But despite this, the party's leadership that is outside should have ended its internal crisis and conflict, but they could not. Similarly, the tragedy of PTI is that its four important leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Mian Mehmood Rashid, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Ijaz Chaudhry and Omar Sarfraz Cheema are in jail. If this leadership had been outside, they could have played an important role in reducing the current internal conflict and conflict. On the other hand, the current central leadership has not received any help from its senior leadership in Kot Lakhpat Jail regarding political decisions, which is why the party is constantly facing major setbacks.
Similarly, those in jails of PTI have a grievance with the current party leadership that they seem to be standing behind in fighting their political case. In difficult situations in politics, it is important to find a way out for yourself and this is a test for the party and its leadership. This type of policy has a take-or-give-it-all mentality and this is possible only when flexibility is created for each other. Therefore, it is time for the current leadership of PTI to review the strategy or hardline policy of the last three years and understand where they made mistakes and under what new political strategy we now need to secure our path or survival in the political arena. Because in these circumstances, clashes? And policies like long marches are not in PTI’s favor and neither can they be allowed to engage in such activities.
Similarly, this policy also applies to the government. It is understandable that the government’s problem is that it would want a clash between PTI and the establishment for its political survival. The policy of continuing. But this policy will not be the right strategy in the current situation of great political division. PTI should find a political path and Imran Khan's sisters and those of them who are in jail should be released. Anyway, among the major crises we are going through in the governance system, one of the major political problems is the political instability in the country and it should be ended and on this basis we can control the war on economic and security or terrorism-related issues.
