Resentment in party ranks embarrasses PTI

LAHORE: Resentment in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf cadres is on the rise against media team of Imran Khan which has greatly embarrassed party over different issues recently.

Currently, the media wing of PTI is headed by Fawad Chaudhry, a former spokesperson of Pervez Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League, who also joined PPP while it was in power joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in later years.

In the days while PTI was struggling against the dictatorial regime of Pervez Musharraf, Fawad Chaudhry’s entire group from Jhelum was siding with the PML-Q. Fawad Chaudhry was the PML-Q candidate in 2013 polls and that of PTI in 2016 by-polls and lost both times. Sources stated that currently, he is striving to get two tickets, including one of the National Assembly as well as one of the Provincial Assembly. Insiders stated that he wants the Provincial Assembly ticket to keep himself in the race of Punjab Chief Minister if PTI comes to power or leads Opposition in case PTI doesn’t win the required numbers.

Within years after joining Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Fawad won the trust of the party Chairman Imran Khan and after getting party ticket from Jhelum in the by-poll where he also showed a good score while getting around 75,000 votes he was also made the Secretary Information of PTI. Till electorate, Fawad Chaudhry’s performance, somehow, remained very good as compared to other candidates who suffered defeats mostly with big margins except Abdul Aleem Khan who lost after a very tight fight and Shoaib Siddiqi who won by-polls from the PML-N headquarters, Lahore.

However, since Fawad was given responsibility of the media wing, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had to remain under criticism over several U-Turns and unclear statements on which the second tier leadership had to face embarrassment while facing media.

Very recently, the entire PTI underwent an embarrassing situation when Mian Mehmood-ul-Rasheed, after meeting with Shahbaz Sharif recommended the name of Nasir Khosa on behalf of the party chairman. However, that name was vetoed by the PTI core committee and Mian Mehmood-ul-Rasheed had to come up with fresh names. Mehmood-ul-Rasheed also lodged serious protest before the core committee for this U-Turn of party but coming days were even more embarrassing for him due to the tweets of his own party’s secretary information. Mian Mehmood-ul-Rasheed, with the consent of Imran Khan in the next meeting with the PML-N leadership came up with the names of Yaqoob Izhar and Nasir Durrani and a day later, another name of Aurya Maqbool Jan was added.Later on, after the refusal of Durrani, fresh names were replaced with Aurya Mabqool Jan, Hassan Askari and Yaqoob Izhar.

Hours within Mian Mehmood disclosed the name of Aurya Maqbool, Fawad Chaudhry through a tweet stated the PTI had withdrawn this name and name of Ayaz Ameer was floated by the Central Media Wing of Tehreek-e-Insaf, thus adding to further resentment of party’s Punjab leadership, which, somehow had a longer history of loyalty with PTI as compared to Fawad.

The tweet of Fawad and the video message of Mian Mehmood were in stark contrast with each other. Fawad in his tweet stated that three names finalised by PTI included Ayaz Ameer, Hassan Askari and Yaqoob Izhar whereas the Opposition leader didn’t drop the name of Aurya and stated that not three, but four names have been suggested by PTI.

The PTI turned into a laughing stock throughout last week due to extra activism of the PTI Central Wing which gave complete opportunity to Imran’s critics for taking U-Turns. Insiders in the PTI stated that in a meeting with party Chairman Imran Khan, Mian Mehmood-ul-Rasheed also expressed his disappointment over the way things had been handled in this episode. Not only this, the activism of PTI Media Wing once again added to the embarrassment of party over the issue of Farooq Bandial and Dost Mohammad Khosa’s joining. When Farooq Bandial, a businessman from Khushab who is infamously known for the 1979 dacoity incident at the residence of yesteryear film actress Shabnam was accepted by PTI, the picture of his joining was released. When Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf came under vehement criticism for accepting a former convicted, tweet of Naeem-ul-Haq was seen that a committee had been made to probe the facts and then party would decide about it. However, the party succumbed before the pressure from social media and hours within his joining, Bandial was expelled without being given a chance to explain his position.

A day later, PTI Chairman Imran Khan himself visited the residence of veteran politician Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa whose entire group joined Tehreek-e-Insaf.

The PTI media wing’s activism further pushed party towards embarrassing situation when Fawad, through a tweet stated that PTI hadn't accepted Dost Khosa, son of Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa who was facing murder charges. On the other hand, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, in a clear rejection of Fawad’s tweet said that he didn’t know Fawad, he just knew Imran and said his son (Dost) had also joined PTI. Later, The News also contacted Sardar Saif-ud-Din Khosa, elder son of Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan who categorically stated that Dost Mohammad Khan Khosa was in PTI.

Once again the party had to face an embarrassing situation and most of the people in the party believed that current media team of Imran was proving counter productive for Tehreek-e-Insaf and instead bringing embarrassment for it.

Most of the party members when contacted held the view that it was obvious that present media team of Imran Khan was merely busy in self-projection rather than projecting the case of the party which wasn’t too far from the next general elections.

Very recently, the incident in which Naeem-ul-Haq, the spokesperson for Imran was also in headlines for slapping a PML-N parliamentarian Danial Aziz in a live TV show. Even before that, Naeem-ul-Haq had been seen in scuffle with PPP’s Jameel Soomro and faced insult before media persons outside Supreme Court a couple of years ago when he tried to stop the way of Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s leader Khurram Nawaz Gandapur.

In all these incidents, only PTI had to undergo an embarrassing situation. The News tried to contact Fawad Chaudhry and Naeem-ul-Haq but neither of them picked up the phone and the PTI Secretary Information, Punjab, Syed Sumsam Bokhari was later contacted by The News who stated that entire party was united under the leadership of Imran Khan. He said it wasn’t fair to think that media wing of party wasn’t performing well but in parties, everyone had the right to express opinion freely which didn’t mean there was any split in its ranks.