[wp_ad_camp_1] PTI‘s top brass facing difference of opinion or difference of approach?
By Zaib Azkaar Hussain
Karachi
Differences between the top brass of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) was alarming in a way that it could create a serious crisis for the ruling party to run the affairs smoothly.
The differences between the leaders of an opposition party are quite different from a ruling party.
A ruling party is duty bound to play a responsible role to deal with the day to day affairs without any disturbances but the gestures and the statements of the ministers seemed indicative to a kind of political antagonism.
Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry was the first government minister who targeted the party policy on the basis of elected and non-elected leaders. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan tried her best create an impression that nothing serious had happened, adding that Fawad Chaudhry has his own point of view, which she did not agree with but it proved to only an eye-wash.
Fawad Chaudhry’s statement regarding a ‘cold war’ between elected and non-elected members of the PTI Pakistan government has highlighted a great threat to the unity and chain of command issue to run the affairs. During the past (in January this year), the differences between the PTI leaders got widened due to which the Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed the then finance minister Asad Umar to deal with the matter and he had taken up the matter by holding a meeting the PTI parliamentary members held at the Parliament House.
The meeting chaired by Asad Umar (himself) was attended by Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar and MNA Amir Dogar among others.
It was said that the session was convened after PTI parliamentary members complained to Umar about the lack of contact between the federal ministers and MNAs since coming to power.
It was noticed that some disgruntled members from south Punjab and Faisalabad had made complaints against some federal ministers. The angry members had warned that if the same attitude persisted, the party would face difficulties in south Punjab during the next elections.
At that time PTI’s chief whip Amir Dogar too was apprehensive about the federal ministers’ attitude. He had taunted that the minister had less interest in attending the meeting and that was a clear indicator of their non-serious approach.
Briefly touching upon the trading of words between the then Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Moonis Elahi, Dogar said the premier would certainly look into the matter.
The then Finance Minister Asad Umar had claimed that no one had ever asked for a party-level meeting for the past five months and now that the issue had come to the government’s attention, all grievances would be addressed forthwith.
However the same minister later on quited the government practically.
The ministry of Fawad Chaudhry was also changed who has now raised the question of elected and non-elected ministers.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi (at the meeting) had also assured the members of constant and continuous contact between the members of the assembly and the federal ministers while Defence Minister Pervez Khattak said that all ministers would brief the PTI lawmakers once a week.
Regardless of the fact that what happened later ion, it showed a practice of making complaints, but it seems that such complaints now could culminate into a serious political threat to the PTI government headed by IMran Khan who has to see each and every affair of government.
In response to the question of elected and non-elected members, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said those who have worked 22 years for the party, could not be ignored.
She criticised Fawad Chaudhry saying if he had any reservations, he should have discussed them with the party leadership, instead of bringing on the media. The differences could benefit the opposition parties and certainly they would try to exploit the situation and in this case, the issue of running the affairs by the PTI government would become a hard task due to lack of unity.
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