News
Sunday, January 01, 2012
PTI causes nervous strain to PPP, PML-N leadershipBy Moazam Baig
LAHORE; The closing months of 2011 brought worrisome situation for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as the cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan, rose to the prominence by holding massive public rallies in Lahore and Karachi.
There has been an increase in political viability of Imran Khan who hopes to have a visible impact on the country’s next government. His emergence as a serious challenger to the ruling parties in the Centre and Punjab has been a dramatic turn for the two parties and nerve-wracking for their leaders.
The PTI’s recent rally in Karachi attracted more than 150,000 people, portraying Khan as the most popular politician of Pakistan and his Tehreek-e-Insaf as a new political force across the country.
Khan promised the people, especially the youth, that he would bring a revolution and eliminate corruption in 90 days if his party was elected to power. The number of people in Karachi stunned many, particularly his political opponents.
Despite the impressive rallies, critics are sceptical of his electoral success. According to them, election politics is different from the politics of rallies and demonstrations, but it is established that Imran Khan has emerged as a major political player. “A large number of young people in his rally also shows the yearning for change amongst Pakistan’s youth,” they added. It is too early to suggest that Khan’s party will pose a serious threat to the strongholds of the two major political forces and will reach parliament as a majority party, they said.
Khan became world famous in 1992 when he led the national cricket team to victory in the World Cup. In 1996, he set up his political party, but he could not succeed in building his party at national level.
He is the only member of his party to win a seat in parliament, but the recent turnout for his rallies and the defection of some leading politicians from their parties are bringing new recognition to his party.
Critics say his credibility depends on whether he is able to make a team of electables. The PTI has attracted mostly urban educated professionals, but failed to get a mainstream following. Now Khan has managed to mobilise enough young urban professionals to become a rising political force. Some say Khan’s ideology is continuously evolving, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Khan’s political rivals question whether his party, the PTI, with its untested upper-class leadership, can really tackle the country’s problems of poverty, violence and conflict.
On the other side, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has been very optimistic about the success of his party in the next general elections, as he is claiming that his revolution will sweep away the tsunami of Khan’s politics but it is also a fact that he is facing problems in controlling the party affairs.
The PML-N chief has been unable to see what was going on his back and the PML-N stalwarts were joining the PTI, including Senior Vice President Javed Hashmi, Senior Vice President Saranjam Khan, Inamullah Khan Niazi and his brother Najeeb Niazi.
His inflexible attitude not only torpedoed efforts to unite all the PML factions but also forced his loyal party workers to the point of defection. Within the PML-N, there is two-track politics - Shahbaz Sharif has been using venomous tongue against the PPP, especially President Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif has been addressing the people by presenting himself as a victim who was sent on forced exile. The time is too short for the Sharif brothers as the next general elections are only one year away.
In the political arena, the PPP seems smooth as its leadership thinks that the PTI would create problems for the PML-N in Punjab where they had already no role. The PPP leadership is of the opinion that its voters would never deviate from the party.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk