Scores of disgruntled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders who quit Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party have joined forces to launch a new military-backed party to contest the general elections which are likely to be held in October.
Sugar baron Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT) is leading the group that left the PTI in the wake of attacks on military installations last month. JKT also happens to be an old friend of the former PM. More than 100 PTI legislators joined their new boss on Wednesday. Tareen is likely to launch the Istehkaam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), comprising close to 120 former PTI stalwarts. Tareen and several pundits have termed the IPP “the king’s party” since it will have the full backing of the military establishment. Observers are already expecting the party will emerge with the lion’s share in the next elections. “It is not out of place to say that the IPP (king’s party) will be the ‘new PTI minus Imran Khan’ in the next general elections likely to be held in October 2023,” former PTI leader Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Thursday.
She said Khan is responsible for what he and his party are facing today. “His anti-military narrative caused the 9 May incidents. Instead of targeting his political rivals he aimed at the establishment and now he is paying the price,” she said. Most of the main leaders and former lawmakers of PTI have joined the JKT group and no one will stay with Khan, she said. “We under the new platform will do politics against mainstream parties- PMLN and PPP- as PTI has now become a thing of the past,” Awan said. More than 130 leaders and former lawmakers have quit PTI. Khan has said this was done “under military pressure” to keep him out of politics.
Interestingly, some of them had announced a ‘temporary break’ from politics while quitting the PTI last month. However, this break seems to have lasted only a couple of weeks. It is believed that only a handful of PTI leaders may be left supporting Khan, in an ongoing effort to fracture the PTI. The Democrats group, comprising some 35 former lawmakers of PTI, has also joined the JKT group. Prominent among those who joined the JKT include PTI’s former senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry, founding member Amir Kiyani, former Sindh governor Imran Ismael, former federal ministers Ali Zaidi and Firdous Ashiq Awan and Fayyazul Hasan Chohan. Property and media tycoon Aleem Khan is lobbying for the president’s slot in the IPP while Tareen himself may be called ‘chief’ of the new party till he gets relief from the court regarding his lifetime disqualification from holding a public office.
Meanwhile, ousted Imran Khan is under pressure to keep his party intact as top leaders continue to abandon it after the crackdown launched to arrest those involved in attacks on military installations in May.
