A party getting popular among politicians

Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) seems to have sustained the pace of its popularity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as prominent personalities and politicians continue to join it and people show their willingness in discussions to vote for it.

With each joining, the party is getting stronger. The Imran Khan-led PTI that had hardly any electable candidates in the province a year ago has now several politicians who have the prospect to win seats and more are expected to join it.

Though it gained approval among the people fed-up with the tested parties and national leaders over the last two years, the Lahore rally provided a big fillip for the party’s prospect of electoral victory. Even after more than two weeks of the rally, it not only remains the topic of discussion in public but also in politicians. The debate as to whether a rally can make a party big is ongoing.    

Iftikhar Khan Jhagra, a former provincial minister, joined the PTI which provided it a candidate who is capable of winning election. Having a checkered political career, Jhagra is confident of winning any seat—provincial assembly or National Assembly—in the coming elections.  He had won KP-9 in 2002 when MMA candidates defeated heavy weights of politics but lost by 210 votes in 2008.

Though he said the party would direct him whether to contest election on provincial assembly or National Assembly seat, he said he could either run polls on PK-9, NA-3 or NA-4. “A large number of people have already joined PTI here in Jhagra and others are approaching us to make public their affiliation with the PTI,” Iftikhar Jhagra said. At the time when he was talking to this scribe, he was at a corner meeting in Joganrai where residents joined his new party.

“Previously, only young people had the tendency to affiliate with PTI, but now senior citizens are also joining the party,” he added. Jhagra said that he would turn up a “great number of people” who would enter the party fold at the Nov 25 rally in Jhagra where Imran Khan would make an address.  

Former Intelligence Bureau Director General and PPP leader Masood Sharif Khattak, who comes from the southern Karak district, has also joined Imran Khan’s party.  He contested election in 2002 from NA-15 but lost to MMA Shah Abdul Aziz. The PTI lacked a base in the southern districts but with his joining, it gained a toehold in that region. He is a person who could be fielded by the PTI in Karak.

Yaseen Khalil, a former nazim of Town-III in Peshawar, has also joined the party. In his KP-5, the PTI workers are overconfident to win the seat irrespective of the candidate’s influence.

The party that was run lonely by Asad Qaiser and his team in KP and had none other than him and Imran Khan available to hold public meetings has now other politicians like Jhagra and Khalil who are organising gatherings, at least in and around Peshawar.

The party has issued a schedule of public rallies where politicians from other parties will be announcing their affiliation with it. Among them are ANP dissident MNA Khwaja Muhammad Hoti and PML-Q veteran leader Nisar Muhammad Khan who will be coming into the PTI fold.

Khwaja Hoti’s son, Omar Farooq Hoti, has already joined PTI. Reportedly, the former has been waiting to win a promise from Imran Khan to make him party’s KP chief. So far, the PTI has resisted his demand, as it runs the risk to disgruntle party activists who stood with Imran Khan through thick and thin.

He is expected to announce joining PTI on December 16 at a public meeting with Imran Khan. But an aide to Khwaja created doubts about his decision. “December 16 is many days away and the political landscape might have changed by then. Who knows he might join PML-N,” he said. Khwaja Hoti could not be reached for comment.

Nisar Muhammad Khan, a former federal minister, will host Imran Khan in Charsadda to announce his joining in Tehrik-e-Insaf.

On Thursday, squash hero Qamar Zaman, who was affiliated with PML-Q, joined the PTI. What the party described an important joining was of Salim Jan Khan, a close relative of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

“We welcome all those who are joining PTI and will give them due respect in the party,” said Asad Qaiser, chairman provincial working committee. “But the party activists and leaders who worked hard to lift the party to this level will enjoy importance,” he assured PTI workers.