LAHORE: Ex-premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday called a new political party comprising its former members an “artificial and inorganic entity,” while analysts said it was a “forced” alliance that would not dent the PTI’s vote bank.
Estranged associates of Khan, including a majority who have deserted him in recent weeks, came together on Thursday and announced setting up the Istihkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), adding fuel to the fire of widespread speculation that a ‘king’s party’ was being primed as a viable alternative to the opposition leader’s PTI, arguably the most popular political party in the country.
In Pakistan, the king’s party is a common euphemism for one favored by the all-powerful military.
“PTI's vote bank is still intact. This is an artificial and inorganic entity, it will be routed in the elections,” Hammad Azhar, one of Khan’s closest aides and the general secretary of the PTI in Central Punjab, told Arab News in a phone interview.
“We were a grassroots movement which you saw at that Minar-e-Pakistan rally,” he said, referring to a 2011 rally led by Khan which saw over 100,000 people gather at the national monument.
Azhar dismissed parallels between the announcement of a new party of PTI defectors and Khan’s own rise to power, also widely believed to have been aided by the military.
Since being ousted from the PM’s office in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April last year, Khan has launched an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military, which independent analysts say helped him rise and fall from power.
His tensions with the military reached a crescendo last month when Khan was arrested in a land fraud case on May 9, prompting violent nationwide protests in which rioters attacked military properties as well as government and private buildings and vehicles. Hundreds of Khan supporters have since been arrested and the military has repeatedly said those who attacked its properties would be punished, including by trying them in military courts. The government of Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif has threatened to ban Khan's PTI and dozens of his close associates have announced quitting his party, with many saying they were leaving politics itself.
On Thursday, several of those who have abandoned the PTI could be seen at a press conference where Jahangir Khan Tareen - who was for over a decade Khan’s closest confidant but fell out with him in 2020 - announced the new party. Among over 100 PTI defectors who have joined the party are prominent figures like Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Ali Haider Zaidi, Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan and Murad Raas.
Hussain declined requests for an interview while Zaidi said he had “nothing to add” to what was already said during the IPP’s first press conference.
“Jahangir Tareen contacted me about starting a new party 20 days ago,” Chohan, who was a minister during Khan’s tenure as PM, told Arab News, saying the plan to launch IPP surfaced after the May 9 violence.
“It was apparent to many senior PTI members that the party leadership had preplanned the riots, particularly the vandalism and destruction of the property of army compounds. This is not the way we [who left] wanted the protests to happen,” he added.
When asked why he had joined the IPP despite announcing that he was quitting politics, Chohan said:
“Nobody can really quit politics. It’s in our blood. It’s only a matter of finding the right platform.”
Analysts Arab News spoke to were skeptical of whether the new party would be able to dent Khan’s popularity and his party’s vote bank.
“There are always extenuating circumstances in Pakistan’s politics,” Sohail Warraich, a longtime observer of Pakistani politics, said. “It certainly seems that the [military] establishment has encouraged the formulation of this new party.”
When questioned about the reason for the new party’s formation, Warraich said: “You have to understand that cutting the PTI’s vote bank is not so simple. It is a massive party, and leaders don’t lose their vote bank with just a couple of mistakes.”
He added that the IPP would also have to face off against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, which is currently ruling in the centre and has historically been popular in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and politically important province.
“They [IPP] will sometimes be facing off against a PMLN stalwart in their home constituency, or be up against someone from the PPP [Pakistan Peoples Party], so it’s not going to be just a direct challenge to the PTI.”
“As things stand, I don’t see this one party on its own spelling the end for PTI,” Warraich concluded.
Journalist and political analyst Benazir Shah said the new party had “limited potential” in national politics.
“It would likely serve as a temporary political home for those who have recently defected from the PTI and are determined to not sit out the next polls,” she told Arab News.
“For one, this alliance of politicians seems forced. The launch ceremony in itself was rushed and bereft of any enthusiasm.”
She said Khan’s party had a loyal vote bank which had helped these same IPP politicians win polls in the past:
“Tareen on the other hand is, as of now, disqualified for life, and does not have that loyal following Khan did,” Shah said, referring to a 2017 court ruling in which Tareen was disqualified from politics for life in a graft case.