PTI ‘split’ as leaders try to fix blame for debacle

• Raja resigns as secretary general; SIC’s Hamid quits core, political committees to escape ‘infighting’
• Insiders say Bushra Bibi’s ‘inflexible’ instructions, lack of guidance on how to cope with changing situation doomed ‘final call’ march

LAHORE: In the wake of allegations and recriminations among party leaders over the ‘failure’ of PTI’s final protest call in Islamabad, the party’s secretary general and the leader of the Sunni Ittehand Council — the party’s main ally in the National Assembly — announced their decision to step down from party office.

Salman Akram Raja submitted his resignation to incumbent party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who confirmed its receipt on Thursday. However, he maintained that the decision to accept or reject the resignation would be made by party founder Imran Khan in the days to come.

Until then, Mr Raja has been asked to continue performing his duties.

Separately, SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza also announced his decision to step down from the party’s core and political committees, adding that he would present his resignation from the National Assembly to the incarcerated party founder.

“I will continue working with the PTI and Imran Khan but I am resigning from the party’s committees to stay away from its internal conflicts,” he said.

Sources also said that Mr Raza had conveyed to party leaders that the confrontation amongst party ranks “was hurting Imran Khan and his cause”.

The resignations follow two days of heated discussion in the party’s two main political committees, which met on Wednesday and Thursday and were dominated by attempts to fix responsibility for the party’s retreat from Islamabad.

Blame game

Sources said the political and core committee’s guns were trained on Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja, as he was censured for his complete failure in mobilising the masses and bringing out any rally from Lahore to reinforce the workers from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter who were pushing towards D-Chowk.

However, sources privy to developments told Dawn that Mr Raja was already demoralised as former first lady Bushra Bibi was calling the shots and had allegedly insulted several party leaders in meetings held in Peshawar ahead of the Nov 24 protest.

Mr Raja also faced harsh and offensive commentary on his video message from a day earlier, where he presented “excuses” for not making it out of Lahore.

Party sources told Dawn that the core and political committees continued discussing the party’s debacle in the wake of “flawed planning, no vision to respond in unexpected situations” on Thursday, as well as talking about a future political strategy.

Other party insiders told Dawn that leaders from Punjab were insistent that Bushra Bibi’s “water-tight orders” to all ticket-holders and office-bearers put them on the back foot and compelled them to follow instructions without any questions.

“Bushra Bibi’s demand that every MPA and MNA should mobilise and bring 5,000 and 10,000 people, respectively, besides instructions not to mobilise from Punjab a couple of days ahead of Nov 24 — the ‘final call’ day — also largely contributed to the party’s retreat,” a source said.

Although leaders in Punjab had been working on mobilising the masses, their path to Islamabad was blocked after the provincial government sealed every city, imposed Section 144 and made all-out efforts to arrest anyone trying to sneak out, said a party leader from Punjab.

He also claimed that the leadership did not guide its focal persons on how to adapt to the changing situation during the three days of the protest.

Sources said that saner voices within the party had been requesting the leadership to divert to Sangjani and await more people from Punjab as they developed a fresh strategy in the wake of the threats hurled by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

“As the instructions had stopped coming from Bushra Bibi and Ali Amin Gandapur’s container at around 5pm on Nov 26, some senior leaders again requested that it would be dangerous for party workers to surge ahead, but they could not get assent from the central container,” a party leader on the ground told Dawn.

‘Staggered approach’

In an interview with ARY News on Thursday night, Sahibzada Hamid Raza had a similar gripe.

He claimed that they had suggested a staggered approach to mobilisation of workers for the ‘final call’ protest, explaining that if the caravan from KP was supposed to set out on Nov 24, then only those northern parts of Punjab (located closer to the capital) should be mobilized alongside them.

Then, in a second wave, caravans from south, east and central Punjab should move out the next day, i.e. Nov 25.

“We should have slowed down, and taken negotiations forward,” he said, when asked about the differences that prompted him to distance himself from the core committee.

“I am not prepared to take the blame for someone else’s mistakes,” he said, adding that decisions that had been taken were not implemented.

Mr Raza also claimed that by the time he and his supporters reached the capital after circumventing roadblocks and law enforcement, the KP caravan at Blue Area had already been dispersed.

A senior leader told Dawn that Mr Raja and Mr Raza’s resignations were just the beginning, as leaders from the Sindh chapter as well as various regions of Punjab had verbally announced their intention to tender their resignations.

Meanwhile, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser on Thursday refuted rumours that he had been chosen to replace Barrister Gohar as the new party chairman.

He also said that a decision regarding Mr Raja’s resignation would be taken after consulting former PM Khan.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2024