The imprisoned leader of the country’s largest political party, Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) is confronted with the division in his party. The major stakeholders including the family, lawyers, political leadership in action and those imprisoned for various crimes are dagger-drawn against each other.
Both Aleema Khan and Bushra Bibi are separately trying to take the party's leadership and could be observed issuing contradictory statements. The lawyers’ community, which is also divided into two factions, one headed by veteran party leader Hamid Khan and the other by Barrister Gohar Khan, has been moving in different directions.
Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, is accused of playing on both sides of the wicket. His disappearances from the venues of the protest demonstration on three occasions were considered by his party leaders as mysterious.
On the other front, the PTI hopes from the outside world, particularly from the United States are diminishing since in three intermittent State Department weekly briefings, the American spokesman made it abundantly clear that it was not the Administration’s policy to interfere in any country’s internal matters.
On another occasion, the US spokesman said statements issued by the congressmen and members of the House of Representatives are not in any manner part of the US policy. He went on to say that as far as cases against the PTI chief were concerned, they would be dealt with by the relevant courts.
This has shattered the hopes of all those PTI leaders, including the IK family members who were expecting that the first task after taking the oath of office President Donald Trump would pick up the phone and ask the Pakistan Government to release Imran Khan.
Similarly, the series of protest demonstrations in foreign countries have stopped and PTI followers have not paid any heed to the call to stop sending remittances back home. In the same manner, the call for a civil disobedience movement forced the party leadership to keep postponing it.
The fate of talks between the PTI and the Government’s committees is not at all different. These talks started on a very positive note with both sides claiming that they seriously wished to settle political issues to bring about much-needed political stability.
However, the two sessions held so far have proved to be non-starter. The government’s committee asked the PTI sides to bring into writing their basic demands. It may be recalled that the PTI insisted at the outset that their demands included the release of all political prisoners and the constitution of a judicial commission on the incidents of May 9, 2022, and events of Nov 24-26, 2024.
The PTI committee demanded a consultative meeting with the party chief currently in Adiala Jail for the approval of the draft of the written charter of demands. This demand was accepted but not implemented on one pretext or another. The latest excuse put forth by the government’s side for failure to arrange the proposed meeting is due to the absence of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq who was on a foreign tour.
Surprisingly, the PTI committee has now agreed to submit the charter of demands even without meeting the party chief. At the same time, the PTI has accused the government of using lame excuses to delay the process of negotiations. In addition to this, the committee members have alleged the government committee of being toothless claiming that the decision will be taken elsewhere, an apparent reference to the power that be (Establishment).
It may be mentioned here that Army Chief Gen Asim Munir on two occasions made it clear that the Armed Forces were apolitical entities and thus would never indulge in political activities of any kind. Similarly, The Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has addressed three press briefings besides issuing an equal number of press releases making it clear that the Armed Forces would stand behind any decision arrived at ongoing talks between PTI and the government.
The Tehreek-e-Insaf, which proved its popularity in the recently held Feb 8, 2024, general elections by securing a maximum number of votes appears to be losing strength due to division in its ranks.
The fundamental assignment to various groups in the party was to ensure the release of their ex-chairman from Adiala Jail adopting any means and measures. The first option was to stage protest demonstrations across the country. This led to May 9, 2022, followed by three attempts at the capital city of Islamabad on different occasions besides holding two protest rallies in Lahore.
But all these attempts proved counter-productive, resulting in the arrest of many top leaders and workers facing trial at different levels and in different courts. The May 9 accused were tried by the military courts which set some free and sentenced others to different jail terms. Out of those, those who were sentenced to two years were set free after they submitted mercy petitions to the Chief of Army Staff.
However, political pundits are of the view that whatever, the outcome of these talks, it would have the blessing if not approval of the Establishment. In their view, the success of the talks does not in any way mean that Imran Khan will gracefully walk out of Adiala Jail and assume his normal political activities. They say the PTI chief will have to seek relief from the courts as was in the cases of Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari.