EDITORIAL: Children of a political divorce have been moved to a new home. Many senior PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) leaders forced to renounce their party and its leader Imran Khan were brought together in Lahore on Thursday for a hurried launch of the Istehkam–i-Pakistan Party (IPP) at a press conference.
While Jahangir Tareen, former trusted lieutenant of Khan, has been designated as patron of this political construct, no other office-bearer has been named. Nor its manifesto revealed.
This is hardly surprising as a fierce get-Khan campaign is on to isolate him and put his party out of political contention. All Tareen could say was that the objective of the project he leads is “to give a new direction to politics and take the country forward with a strong economy.”
But to those familiar with this country’s chequered political history, it is just another chapter in the favourite playbook of the powers that be. Back in 1955, the then Muslim League was put asunder to float the Republican Party at the behest of the then head of state, Iskander Mirza, the first president of Pakistan.
In 1962, the League was split again to fashion Conventional Muslim League patronised by the then military ruler Field Marshal Ayub Khan, the rest converted into Council Muslim League. In the ‘70s the NAP (National Awami Party), banned by a civilian government, wisely reinvented its identity as ANP (Awami National Party) to remain in contention.
In the ‘80s, Mohammad Khan Junejo formed his own faction to get elected as prime minister in the party-less election, schemed by Gen Ziaul Haq’s regime. Later Nawaz Sharif launched the Pakistan Muslim League-N that survives till today, supported and shunned by the powers that be, depending on its willingness to play along.
In the early 2000s, after Gen Musharraf’s regime crafted another faction out of it, the PPP-Patriots, the real PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) registered under a new appellative for electoral purposes. The PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), however, faces a very different situation.
Its leader Imran Khan has challenged the established order like never before, turning him from arguably an inept politician as prime minister into a populist leader. The ‘system’ in the habit of meddling, directly or indirectly, in governance sees him as a threat and hence intolerable.
Opportunists in the ruling PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) coalition parties, with little in common, are happy to see the PTI dismantled and its leader cornered, if not jailed, before the general elections, which the ongoing developments indicate are to be held later this year.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to matter to them that by lending a helping hand to the ‘system’ determined to destroy the PTI they are undermining the democratic process with serious implications for their own future. Meanwhile, political engineering is in full swing.
The IPP is a small part of it. Most of the PTI deserters herded into it will need a lot of help to win seats. Other groups are also being pushed into another party to create a hung parliament at the centre; ditto in Punjab — home base of the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) now rejoicing the breakup of PTI — so that post-election setup can be easily exploited and kept in check.
Sadly, at least for now, Pakistan is to remain a hybrid state due to the power games played by those whose constitutionally assigned job is elsewhere.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023