Jehangir Tareen forming a forward bloc within the PTI consisting of ‘like-minded’ MPAs and MNAs was an avoidable outcome. A few weeks prior to this development, senior members from this group were successful in securing concessions for Mr Tareen in the FIA sugar inquiry after meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan. Was the leniency that was agreed to not shown or is something much larger than Mr Tareen’s FIA case afoot? Either way, Mr Khan faces a quagmire that will be tough to get out of and the threats and problems only seem to be multiplying.
One such irritant, that should seemingly be quite manageable, is proving to be difficult. Mr Faisal Vawda, while appearing on a TV talk show, in another one of his foot-in-mouth moments, brushed off the Tareen group as a bunch of nobodies that ‘can and will be handled through an SHO’. The irresponsible statement expectedly drew harsh criticism from within the party, with one minister describing Mr Vawda as ‘the real threat to Imran Khan’s government’. At a time when senior level PTI politicians are trying to pacify this rebellion, Mr Vawda’s statement was most unnecessary and out of line, but if the last two and a half years are any indication, he will not be reprimanded. Meanwhile, unja Assembly Seaker Pervez Elahi has said that his party, the PML(Q), will not betray the PTI despite ‘unfulfilled promises’. This is not the first time Mr Elahi has expressed his displeasure over the treatment meted out to him and his party by the PTI but with the few political options on the table he has to contend with what he has. Nevertheless, he misses no opportunity to remind PM Khan about the fragility of this alliance. At the same time, PML(N) president and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has increased his political activity. After being stopped from boarding a plane to the UK for medical treatment by airport officials despite a High Court order allowing him to do so, he has been put on the ECL by the PTI. He is now actively trying to get the broken PDM back together by convincing the PPP and ANP to return to the opposition alliance. Mr Khan has yet again resorted to his oft-repeated claim that all of the political pressure he is facing is emanating from ‘mafias trying to get an NRO’. Perhaps it’s time he reassesses which mafias are asking for what NRO from whom and why.
