Political challenges for PM Imran Khan deepen

ISLAMABAD: The timing of the surprise emergence of an Aleem Khan faction within the PTI and its joining hands with the already disgruntled Jehangir Tareen group in the ruling party is really intriguing at a time when the opposition is all set to requisition a session of the National Assembly for a no-trust motion against the prime minister.

Monday’s surprising Lahore events served as a serious blow to the ruling party, which was already trying to secure the votes of PTI MNAs and its allies. So far, all efforts made to persuade the Jehangir Tareen group or make the PMLQ categorically announce its support for Imran Khan have remained unsuccessful.

Adding insult to injury, PTI’s Aleem Khan and Balochistan PTI leader Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind have also suddenly become active and are hobnobbing with those who are already out to oust Imran Khan. Like Tareen, both Aleem Khan and Rind also have their own influence over certain PTI members.

There is no explanation for how and why all the anti-Imran Khan forces have suddenly started getting closer. However, it is interesting that this time round, there seems to be no presence of the establishment's footprint found anywhere around this political activity.

Unlike in the past, some of the political groups are not getting any signal from the establishment and are thus finding themselves in an indecisive position. PTI’s coalition partners, the PMLQ and MQM, are still neither here nor there.

Meanwhile, an influential source in the Tareen group confided that the group is also not getting any signal from anywhere. After a long time, the PMLN, PPP and JUIF are also admitting, that too in public, that the establishment appears neutral.

In the absence of the establishment’s support, this political situation is a big challenge for Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government. After failing to get the support of the Chaudhrys from Gujrat in his last meeting with them in Lahore, Prime Minister Imran Khan reportedly assigned Senator Ali Zafar to meet the Chaudhrys and convince them to announce their support for the prime minister.

Sources said that Ali Zafar met the Chaudhrys but the PMLQ is still following a policy of wait-and-see. Ali Zafar and his father, S M Zafar, have had a long and close association with the Chaudhrys.

On Monday, the PTI core committee met to discuss the opposition’s move and evolve a strategy on how to foil it. Stunned by the surprise surfacing of Aleem Khan leading another anti-Imran Khan group within the PTI, the prime minister has asked Governor Sindh Imran Ismail and Aamir Kiani to go and meet Aleem Khan and convince him to have a meeting with the premier to settle their differences.

PTI sources claim that Imran Khan looked confident in the core committee meeting. The PTI core committee discussed that in case of a no-trust motion, the onus would be on the opposition to produce at least 172 members in the National Assembly, which, they believe, would be a difficult task.

These sources said that if the opposition has the support of a few ruling party MNAs, the PTI too has been assured of support by some opposition MNAs. Meanwhile, the opposition parties are still busy wooing the disgruntled PTI MNAs. The PMLN has worked on PTI MNAs from Punjab and the party claims to have the support of over 10 PTI MNAs. The PPP is trying to persuade ruling party MNAs from Karachi and Balochistan whereas Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s party is said to have the support of a few PTI MNAs from KP.

Opposition sources insist that their number in the National Assembly for the required no-trust move is more comfortable than before. These sources hinted that the opposition will soon requisition the session of the National Assembly to move a no-trust motion against Imran Khan.

Most of the members of the Jehangir Tareen group are already in contact with the PMLN. So far, the opposition is mainly depending upon the same group, some of whose members have already voiced in public their no confidence against Imran Khan.

Regarding the PMLQ and MQM, the sources said that they would show their cards only after the National Assembly session is convened and a no-trust motion is moved.