Pressure is building inside the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on its top leadership and on Mehmood Khan Achakzai, the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and chief of the opposition alliance Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan (TTAP). A PTI leader, speaking at a background briefing, said party members want them to step down because talks with the ruling coalition failed to secure a deal that could have protected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government led by Sohail Afridi. The provincial government was dismissed after the federal government imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in KP on October 11, citing security reasons. Under governor’s rule, the province is run by the governor rather than an elected government.
How the talks broke down
According to the PTI leader, the top leadership urged Afridi early on to postpone the long march on Islamabad that he announced in the first week of August. Afridi replied that the party had at least seven weeks to negotiate before his September 27 deadline. The insider said serious dialogue did not begin in that period, and that backdoor contacts with the government through Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi were not followed by formal talks until very late.
The negotiating team included Gohar Ali Khan, Salman Akram Raja and Asad Qaiser, who sought the release of Imran Khan and his treatment at a hospital of his choice. Talks with the government failed at the final stage after the October 11 measures. Many party members believe the negotiators should have accepted the government’s condition that a meeting with Khan would be arranged only if the march was called off. Some parliamentarians say the leadership should have protected the KP government in any case, since many party leaders facing cases had found shelter in the province and now have no safe place to avoid arrest.
Criticism of Achakzai and Gohar Ali Khan
Achakzai faces the sharpest criticism, the PTI leader said. One proposal in the party was to disband the TTAP, which the leader said “has failed to deliver”. Khan nominated Achakzai for the opposition leader’s post so he would engage the government, the leader said, and Achakzai had failed in that task. The leader said Achakzai insisted the march be called off only after a meeting with Khan was arranged, which sabotaged the talks. “Achakzai should have led the talks from the opposition side,” the leader said, adding that he turned down an offer of a chartered flight from Quetta.
Gohar Ali Khan, the PTI interim chairman, is criticised for filing a petition in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the emergency and governor’s rule three days after those measures. Some leaders say it should have been filed within 24 hours. Senate opposition leader Raja Nasir Abbas is credited with starting the talks, but the insider said he is criticised for allegedly following Achakzai’s line. Party leaders are also reluctant to call a meeting of the political and core committee to avoid criticism.
Some leaders want new faces to lead the party and are planning a meeting with Khan to seek his final approval for a change at the top. The sources do not say whether that meeting has taken place or whether any leader will step down. The key test now is whether the party makes formal decisions on its strategy.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- First week of August: Sohail Afridi announced a plan for a long march on Islamabad, and the top PTI leadership asked him to postpone it.
- September 27: Afridi’s deadline passed, and formal talks with the government began only after it, a PTI insider said.
- October 11: The federal government imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in KP, citing security reasons, and talks failed at the final stage.
- Three days after those measures: PTI filed a petition challenging them in the Peshawar High Court.
Aasan alfaaz mein
PTI ke andar Mehmood Khan Achakzai aur party ki qiyadat par dabao barh raha hai. Kuch leaders kehte hain ke Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ki hukumat bachane ke liye baat cheet nakam rahi, lehaza qiyadat tabdeel honi chahiye. Yeh dawe party ke andar ke logon ki taraf se hain, aur abhi tak koi official tasdeeq nahi hui. Aam shehri ke liye iska matlab siyasi be-yaqeeni hai, jabke KP mein governor’s rule ki wajah se sooratehal abhi wazeh nahi.
