After more than fifteen years in the political sidelines, Khan with an increasingly swelling entourage of popular and politically seasoned party defectors is an emerging force to be reckoned with. Khan of cricket and Shaukat Khanam Hospital fame is no more the controversial guest speaker on talk shows that required drama, no. Whispers of the Establishment’s new favorite party began to make rounds in rumor mills and drawing rooms as Mian Azhar from PML-Q crossed over to PTI followed by, ex-MPA Ifitkhar Soomro, Allama Iqbal’s grandson Waleed Iqbal, veteran columnist Shafqat Mehmood, Pir Pagara’s son Rashid Shah and earlier this week Khans’ new right hand ex-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi pledged allegiance to the PTI cause. Marvi Memon hasn’t yet sworn fealty to PTI but is expected to. And thus enter the much needed elements of political savoir-faire and feudal mass following in PTI’s horde of frenzied political workers.
This chain of events is a marked departure from Khan’s earlier promises of steering clear of tainted veterans and bringing an end to feudal lordship over the parliament. Khan’s appearances on television nowadays have become more about offering excuses and explanations for allowing ‘political orphans’ from all kinds of alphabet soup parties to throng to his fold than to finally iterate his party policies and put an end to erratic stances he’s so famous for taking and decide where he stands. He’s right when he says PTI needs experienced politicians and Qureshi’s feudal and Mureed following will take PTI a long way, however will this addition of ideologically opposed elements within the party, give way to mere stagnancy and perpetuation of the feudal cause once PTI does make inroads to the parliament house?
Qureshi and Khan aren’t exactly known for Seeing Eye to Eye on issues of foreign policy and matters pertaining to the military either. Where Khan openly supports friendly ties with India, a stance that keeps him at loggerheads with the military, Qureshi from his old IJI days was a stalwart ‘GHQ man’ who was known for keeping his GHQ brief with him at all times when he was foreign minister. Qureshi’s flitting back and forth between political parties has not entirely incorrectly gotten him labeled a fair weather politician, whether his role in PTI will be to temper down his impulsive quixotic party leader, steer the current wave of popularity to a stable pool of support or cleave PTI along ideological lines and leave for whatever party looks more attractive, only time will tell.
READ MORE HERE: All aboard the Change Express
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