PTI says no damaging effect on party after ‘opportunist politicians’ departure

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is confident that the departure of ‘a few opportunist politicians’ will have no damaging effect on the party’s prospect to win the upcoming general election.
It believes the desertion by politicians who had joined the party has a silver lining. The party looks to gain advantage if the political stalwarts, considered tested and corrupt by many, leave PTI.

People’s support apparently slowed or even declined when ‘tested and corrupt’ politicians joined the camp of Imran Khan, who has been championing change and pledging corruption-free governance.

“People had reservations that we would capitulate to newcomers, most of whom were dubbed as corrupt, but we didn’t,” argued Shah Farman, PTI’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spokesman. “It is proof of what we have been saying. It is proof of our commitment that we will not compromise on our agenda,” he told The News.

Several politicians who had joined PTI were hoping to get party offices or tickets. However, the party apparently resisted such demands from these politicians despite the possibility that they would leave the party. Some politicians allege PTI backtracked on its commitments with them, but it denies the allegations.

Many people still wonder why politicians who had proudly joined PTI quit it within a year. Shah Farman sees three main reasons for it. “Some opportunists joined the party with a surge in PTI’s popularity. They did not support change or our ideology but sought party offices and tickets. None was promised and they had to leave,” he explained.

He said his party had been saying that everyone could join PTI but tickets would be awarded to only honest and clean people. It should be enough for people to believe his party, he added, that PTI was allowing politicians to quit the party instead of yielding to them.

“Second, status quo politicians have never been used to intra-party election. They consider themselves above everyone and feel it insulting to be made responsible to workers. They knew that postponement of intra-party election was not going to happen and so they also had to go,” he argued.

Two political stalwarts, Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti and Iftikhar Jhagra, left Tehreek-e-Insaf late last year just ahead of PTI’s intra-party election.

Discussing the third reason, he said PTI workers had been making efforts for change but some politicians wanted to maintain the status quo. “Traditional politicians are a network which is not ready to work for a change,” he alleged. So they had been uneasy with PTI’s ‘educated and wise workers’ and quit, he added. “We are allowing them to leave because we cannot compromise our ideology,” he said.

Shah Farman claimed they knew new entrants would be uneasy with ideological workers and expected they might leave the party at any stage. “But let me be very clear that some politicians who joined PTI truly believed in our party’s ideology and struggle for change. They thought the way we thought, but they did not have a proper platform to express their mind. Those likeminded politicians continue to be with us, and they feel at ease with our workers. We also have great respect for them,” he said.

Citing a recent survey by James Walter Thompson, he said PTI was the most popular party in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan and Quetta out of eight cities that were surveyed. “The departure of a couple of electable politicians, whom I even don’t consider electable, will have no adverse impact on PTI in elections,” he hoped.

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