Imran’s political no-balls

During his golden years in cricket for over 20 years, cricketer-turned-politician and now Prime Minister Imran Khan has hardly bowled a ‘no ball,’ and always been praised by the cricketing world as one of the fittest and finest cricketers of his time.

In politics, his spell has been full of no-balls particularly in the last two-and-half years in power. Unfortunately, he did not have the services of two Ws (Waseem and Waqar) in the politics and left with no other choice but to go with Waseem Akram Plus (Usman Buzdar) and Waqar Plus (Mahmood Khan).

Unlike in cricket where Imran Khan rarely blundered his political career is full of blunders and yet he succeeded just because of his own skill and fighting spirit. There is a long list of his political blunders and his poor selection of team.

Even otherwise after the postponement of Pakistan Super League (PSL) due to reported incidents of COVID-19 positive among players the focus of the people would be back on Political Super League, where on Wednesday, major upset has upset Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Imran’s tactics to get the former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ‘out’ cheaply and easily failed because of poor field placing and poor selection of player like Hafeez Shaikh. They dropped too many catches and his bowlers also bowled too many no-balls, one of which (papers rejected) cost the match. Now, whether some of his players have ‘fixed the match’ with the political ‘bookies’ or not needs to be investigated. One thing is certain that even if they were involved Kaptan has no choice but not to take any action against them because he still needs those controversial players to get a vote of confidence.

Politics is a different ball game altogether where teams cannot afford too many no-balls or erratic shots which they did during their two-and-half years. They still have two years more to improve their bowling and batting and should blame themselves for the political blunders they have committed so far.

I know Imran since his cricketing days and also know he is a fighter to the core and that could be one of the reasons why he decided that instead of challenging the results in the Election Commission of Pakistan, he (Imran) should go and seek a vote of confidence. His decision could be a bit risky but would certainly give a boost to otherwise demoralised ruling party.

Risky because in case of defeat, he would leave with no other choice but to resign and call fresh elections. It’s a political and bold decision because if he gets the confidence vote he would be in a better and stronger position to hit back at opposition and could go aggressive against them.

But, irrespective of the outcome, it is high time for the PM and his team for some soul-searching as it would be naïve to look into the surprise defeat of Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh from one perspective by merely accusing opponents of ‘horse-trading.’ There are other factors as well within the PTI including some serious political blunders by Khan himself despite having dozens of ‘advisers’, who looked busy but did nothing on the political front.

The margin could have been bigger if late efforts by certain quarters have not controlled the damage and the Prime Minister himself has not taken over the job of campaigning for Shaikh as he knew where the problem lies within the party.

So, let's have a look at what really went wrong as there is more than mere accusation of ‘horse-trading.’ Imran Khan’s PTI emerged in 2018 elections as a single largest party but never in a comfortable position from day one. His government hugely depended on the allies like MQM (Pakistan), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal), Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) and Janobi Punjab Mahaz.

It’s not merely the defeat of Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh, which Prime Minister Imran Khan needs to reassess, but also how many of MNAs and MPAs, which he rarely met in the last two-and-half years, piled bundles of complaints before him including cold response from his aides including Mr Shaikh.

Imran knows well there was general disliking towards unelected advisers in the federal cabinet, and PTI MNAs and MPAs including his closest ministers like Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umer, Shireen Mazari and veteran Sheikh Rashid Ahmad must have voted for Hafeez Shaikh but whether they also liked him or not the PM knows well. Was Shaikh the right choice for the Senate? Simple answer is no. There is a vote difference between Hafeez Shaikh and Ms Fouzia Arshad who pulled 174 against Shaikh’s 164.

Former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who defeated Shaikh was a joint candidate of opposition alliance (PDM) and a trump card of former President Asif Ali Zardari, who for the last six months was working on this formula.

Had the Prime Minister awarded ticket to some old party guard, the result could have been different. PDM and Asif Zardari mainly took advantage from the discomforts within the PTI MNAs and MPAs and one cannot rule out the possibility of some ‘foul play’ as well.

For instance, a group of Sindh PTI including Karachi’s MNAs and MPAs had formed their own separate group and at times publically dissented but the government did not take serious notice. Only twice PM met them and assured them that their issues would be sorted out but no progress was made.

Did PM know why despite unprecedented backing and support from ‘neutral umpires’ he failed to break the strong opposition party i.e. PML (N)? The recent by-elections in Punjab were a wake-up call.

His handpicked Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has already caused colossal political damage to him and the PTI. Back-to-back defeat in the by-elections in Sindh, Punjab and PTI’s strongest seat in KP constituency of former CM Pervez Khattak clearly showed that all is not well in PTI in three out of four provinces except Balochistan, which always has different political dynamics.

Imran should consider himself lucky thanks to some ‘quarters’ that it was a narrow margin against the kind of dissent that exists in the party since the departure of his No 2, Jehangir Tareen, who also took the backseat after getting a cold shoulder from the PM during the campaign for Shaikh. Initially, he announced support for Shaikh in his own personal capacity.

It is also time for PM Khan to revisit his policy and style of politics at least towards his own coalition partners and the way they were treated. He did not wake up when for the first time BNP (Mengal) quit and joined hands with the opposition. The other two allies, PML(Q) and MQM-Pakistan, are with him for reasons other than personal and it was almost after one year that PM met Chaudhrys of Gujrat.

Even if PM Khan gets the vote of confidence he needs to give more importance to party MNAs, MPAs and coalition partners. He must go for change in Punjab and KP, and sooner the better as local bodies’ elections are due under the Supreme Court order.

The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of GEO, The News and Jang

Twitter:@MazharAbbasGEO