When Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to contest national elections he was told by all those who mattered, both inside the party and in the echelons of power, that he will have to win over the electables if he wanted to be the Prime Minister of the country rather than the leader of a small and ineffectual cadre party. Recruiting the electables required exertion of pressure from the right quarters along with offers of ministries, development funds and promises of appointment of bureaucrats of their choice in their constituencies. Imran Khan agreed to the plan and met with open arms the turncoats that were bought to him one by one or in groups without them suffering any pang of conscience. Meanwhile he harboured the misconception that they would be loyal to him rather than to those who had brought them to the PTI-led alliance. He got the first shock of his tenure when about 30 of the like-minded MNAs and MPAs swore allegiance to Jahangir Tareen while still professing loyalty to the PM to keep the door for talks open.
The PTI’s factional infight played no small role in the case initiated by the FIA against Mr Tareen. This sent a negative signal to all those who had contested as independents but were persuaded to join the PTI by Mr Tareen. What appears from the statements of the like-minded group is that Chief Minister Buzdar overplayed his hand by getting the case registered against Mr Tareen while simultaneously exerting pressure on them by blocking their funds, transferring friendly officers from their constituencies and registering fake cases against their family members and friends. Meanwhile leaders of the anti Tareen faction in the PTI are advising the PM to sit on the opposition benches rather than succumb to the like-minded group’s pressure.
Allied parties and groups like the MQM, PML(Q) and GDA too were persuaded to join hands with the PTI to form the ruling coalition. While the PM must be looking over his shoulder these days, he has to realise that in politics favours are never one-sided and are supposed to be returned. Practicing realpolitik has benefits as well as risks.
