Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Interesting results are coming out from PTI’s internal elections. Ordinary workers have beaten wealthy landlords, Asad Qaisar an old stalwart has retained the position of President KP PTI.

Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls – The Express Tribune

**ISLAMABAD: **The results of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) much touted intra-party elections are out, and they have managed to take even the party chairman by surprise. Despite tough resistance by those who boarded the PTI bandwagon after the Lahore rally, old stalwarts have prevailed. Generally known as the true face of PTI, these old stalwarts are now poised to topple new inductees in the party from senior positions in PTI, including president, vice chairman and senior vice presidents.

“It’s a wake-up call for the new workers, the results of the PTI intra-party elections have arisen the old ideological workers in the party,” said a senior party leader, who did not want to be named. Results show that if the democratic process continues, and elections are held for senior positions in the party, then Imran Khan is likely to see the return of many old faces in the Central Executive Committee, he predicted.

**Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Senior PTI Campaigner Asad Omer and Senior Vice President Jahangir Tareen are likely to face increasingly tough resistance due to their unqualified promotion of new inductees during the intra-party elections, added another senior leader.
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**While talking to The Express Tribune, the party leader said that the re-election of Asad Qaiser as President of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa wing had sent a message for those who had left the party due to intra-party conflict (induction of Musharraf era politicians).
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**Qaiser had been unceremoniously removed by Imran Khan last year when Iftikhar Gilani and Khawaja Muhammad Khan Hoti had joined the PTI in the province. Both have now left the party. Qureshi, Tareen and Omar had been openly supporting Pervez Khattak for this slot, he added.
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**Similarly, party leaders quoted the example of Amir Mughal, elected as President of Islamabad, saying that he won the post despite not being in the good books of Imran khan.
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They further said that only President Javed Hashmi, whose ill health does not allow him to mobilize PTI workers in elections, encouraged Mughal to continue his struggle. Senior party leaders, in an interaction with The Express Tribune, said that the elections will prove a hard nut to crack for the new inductees, who will have difficulties in holding on to high offices. He said the lack of popularity of new inductees amongst ideological workers worked against them.

Amir Mughal said that party workers were ideological, which is why “only leaders popular with the workers would continue to hold high positions.”

Talking about the results, senior PTI leader Jahangir Tareen said; “This is only the beginning of Tabdeeli (change) – the intra-party elections will prove to be a game changer by showing the contrast between “family” parties and a worker party like PTI.”

Secretary Information Shafqat Mehmood said that PTI had set a historical precedent. “PTI is the only party in the subcontinent which had held real, fair and transparent elections for all party positions.” Sources revealed that a majority of PTI workers were ready to vote for Nadir Leghari for Sindh President, while an old party stalwart Qasim Suri was likely to win the elections for Balochistan President.

**Meanwhile, ideological party leaders such as Ijaz Chaudhry, Mian Mehmood Rashid, and Dr Yasmin are already giving a tough time to the Tareen-Qureshi supported duo of Aleem Khan and Ahsan Rashid in Punjab.
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Published in The Express Tribune, March 1[SUP]st[/SUP], 2013.

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in polls
PTI is no where
Headline of the news paper
Next day of National Election
Like all previous elections

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

in some other news.

PPP intra-party elections challenged in ECP

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

Asad Qaiser's win is really surprising. And highlight the importance of the these elections. Imran Khan deserves all the credit for going against the advice of many people close to him.

Asad Umar will be fine. But Tareen and Qureshi will be in trouble due to tough competition from elected candidates. Great precedent!

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

Its the first in Pakistan, and the media and every one (including me as I was a bit critical about the timings). But the elections are setting a precedence, what can be said if even those people are being selected who supposedly are not even in the good books of Imran Khan. The workers of other parties are asking their leaders now.

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

When Hoti and Gillani joined Asad Qaiser was removed from the post of president. Both have left the party, Qaiser is back with a bang. And now it seems another new comer Masood Sharif Khattak could be the next casualty in KP. Anyways, it was a worth while activity and as a result the party has been organized to the grass root level of both Punjab and KP.

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

I feel for Saad Rafique. Great N-League worker but never appointed for any post even though he worked really hard for Youth wing president which was of course given to the great Hamza Shahbaz.

These elections and the oath taking ceremony is going to launch the election campaign. And if PTI can generate the right momentum then, PTI mojo will be back in full swing.

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

The sooner people like Saad Rafique realize this the better for them. PMLN is a Family Co. party.

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

PTI is not eligible to contest the elections as their party election process is not complete, where as the parties where you raise your hands (and some in which even thats not done) are eligible.

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

great work by ECP! :k:

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Re: Bowled out: Old stalwarts bounce back; lead in PTI polls

Change begins - Adiah Afraz

Let’s leave politics aside for a while and let’s give credit where credit is due.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf successfully holds its intra-party elections. Around 70 million party members vote to elect 80 thousand office bearers, and if we don’t take a moment to reflect on the significance of this event, then trust me, we are doing a disservice to ourselves as a nation.

First of all, congratulations PTI. In a country where dynastic politics is the rule of the game and where political parties are run as fiefdoms of the selected few, the PTI has empowered its ordinary worker and given a voice to the ‘silent’ voter by conducting open-for-all party elections, and initiating a tradition of true grass-roots democracy.

Unprecedented in the history of Indo-Pak politics, these elections provide us with a rare opportunity to be proud of ourselves. Pakistan has just entered history-in-the-making mode, and we all deserve to feel the moment regardless of our political affiliations.

Hence when I say I am proud, I do not speak as a star-struck Imran Khan fan, or as a diehard PTI supporter. I say this as a Pakistani whose elected government has just completed five years of its tenure and who is now anxiously waiting to see how the future of democracy unfolds in the forth coming elections.

So in this scenario when an emerging political party, with no parliamentary representation and yet carrying the burden of half the nation’s hopes to bring about change, takes the risk of holding intra-party elections weeks before the country’s general elections – and that too amidst strong scepticism and opposition from within and without – then the successful completion of these very elections becomes all the more significant. Significant, because they prove a few basic things beyond a reasonable doubt.

First, that democracy with all its alleged drawbacks, shortcomings and inadequacies, is still doable in Pakistan. Second, that the apologists for nepotism and class hierarchies in our feudal political culture now seriously need to re-think their paradigms.

And third, that despite all the personality related criticism levied against him, Imran Khan’s sincerity of intent and single-minded resolve to stand firm on his ground, are definitely formidable forces for his opponents to reckon with.

Famous biographer Christopher Sandford has extensively catalogued these very personality traits of Imran Khan in his 2009 biography “Imran Khan: The cricketer, the celebrity, the politician”. Phrases such as ‘benevolently dictatorial’, ‘fiercely patriotic’, ‘burning with ambition’, ‘absolutely dedicated’, ‘mildly obsessed’, ‘strong-willed’, ‘single-minded’ and ‘earnest of purpose’, pop out from every second page of the book.

“Gibes only serve to spur him on”, says Sandford at one point, and also quotes Khan to be a “joyless, single-minded leader”, who is an ‘intense strategiser’ and who expects everyone to “live up to his own high standards”.

The Pakistani nation itself is witness to the living examples of Khan’s achievements for Pakistan. How he changed the way Pakistani cricket was perceived around the world to how he established Shaukat Khanum Cancer hospital, the most credible charity in Pakistan. His sincerity of intent has been proven time and again.

The only thing that remained to be seen in the current political transition period was this sincerity of intent going beyond the domains of cricket captaincy and international philanthropy, and reflecting itself in successful implementation of political intent.

Sceptics had been especially apprehensive about the danger of drawing parallels between cricket, philanthropy and politics for fear of taking this analogy too far.

But the fact remains that with a similar sincerity of intent much lesser men than Imran Khan have done wonders for their people. Nitish Kumar’s Bihar model is just one example in this regard. The PTI’s present intra-party elections point towards an expected dissipation of the very scepticism that Imran Khan’s sincerity of intent is subjected to.

Despite occasional disruptions and allegations of hooliganism highlighted on TV channels, there has not been a single media commentator who hasn’t applauded the spirit behind these elections and commended Imran Khan and his newly-launched team of suave media spokespersons on achieving this milestone.

Some have even declared these elections a bigger achievement than any of the feats Khan has achieved in the past, and have heralded them as a true precursor of change.

And why not? When peasants beat businessmen and ordinary workers get elected for important party positions; when workers become leaders and leaders become workers; and above all when men, women and children come out of their homes to stand in queues for hours to elect their party officials; then it all points in one direction. That change is doable.

That Imran Khan’s resolve to give Pakistan strong institutions based on solid groundwork is doable. That bringing people out of their comfort zones to change their lot, is doable.

There is hope that Pakistanis from all social and economic backgrounds do have the willingness and the capacity to accelerate the process of political evolution.

From a wider perspective, this election should not be seen as an end in itself, or an isolated victory of an individual political party. In fact, during times when the question is that of saving the very existence of the country, this milestone should be seen more as a real-life means to an end.

The end that democratic norms can be initiated from within political parties, that dynastic politics can be discarded for a more dynamic model of democracy, and that the slogan of change is no more just a slogan, but a reality. That change, in fact, has already begun.

All that remains now is for us to witness how this change transforms our country right in front of our eyes – and soon.

The writer is a teaching fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS.

Email: adiahafraz@ gmail.com