Asad Umar had left the PTI’s secretary generalship on May 24, but continued within the party. He has not joined any party, and says that the PTI ‘minus one’ has no chance, even it was widely speculated that he had remained within the party so as to pick up the pieces after party chief Imran Khan was disqualified. He said that his job was to implement the policy of the party, but if he disagreed with it, how was he to implement it? He said that that is why he had left the party, because he disagreed with the policy of confrontation adopted in the refusal to talk with other politicians and shown by the attacks on military symbols on May 9. A PTI release riposted that he had chosen to leave the party while it was suffering an attack on its integrity.
Mr Umar has not exactly covered himself in glory before. He was widely touted by the PTI itself as the answer to the country’s problems, and was given the Finance portfolio, He did not do well, to say the least, and was sacked within months. He was brought back to the Cabinet as Planning Minister, and then made Secretary General when Aamir Kiani was sacked from the job. He was thus Secretary General for both Long Marches, the abortive Jail Bharo Tehrik as well as the May 9 protests,
He did not name names in sniping at former colleagues, when describing the decision-making process as flawed, but he probably would not appreciate that he was an example of Mr Khan’s poor choice of advisers. However, what poses a question mark on Mr Khan’s judgement is the fact that he allowed those who had been imposed on him to gain ascendancy. True, every leader likes to be told only what he wants to hear, and saying such things has been the foundation of many a courtier’s career down the ages, but Mr Umar’s statement indicates that Mr Khan has carried this tendency to a whole new level. The refusal to engage in dialogue is not good for the country, and Mr Khan’s call to his supporters to get ready for more protests, made on Monday indicates that he is persisting with the confrontational path that he has already been following with few dividends.
