I have a lot of respect for Mairaj Muhammad Khan, seems like PTI will remain a Imran Khan only party which at best will have the odd MNA seat.
Mairaj resigns from post
of PTI secretary-general
By our correspondent
KARACHI: The leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Mairaj Muhammad Khan, has resigned from the office of Secretary-General and as member of Central Executive Committee in protest against the attitude of party chief Imran Khan who, he says, is managing party affairs through his non-political friends.
Mairaj announced his resignation at a Press conference on Friday at the Karachi Press Club. He said after working for over five years with Imran Khan, he had come to the conclusion that the party chief and some of his “non-political” colleagues wishing to build and run the party affairs beyond the realm of experience and comprehension of the Secretary-General.
He said it was tragedy that Imran failed to build a party that could lead the people in the struggle to change the oppressive system while the great goals and objectives could only be achieved by great struggle and sacrifices through a strong and organised set-up.
The PTI leader said that unfortunately those at the helm of affairs did not share a common vision and many of them were devoid of all conviction and commitment and were not interested even in rendering the slightest sacrifice. He said that the Imran and his friends knew that they would lose their monopoly and control over the party if it developed into a real democratic force as then genuine political workers would join the PTI.
He alleged that these elements were creating factionalism, disunity, and lack of discipline in the organisation, and didn’t refrain from facilitating the entry of dubious characters, and even criminals into the party, so as to render it ineffective.
Mairaj said that the party could have trained and created excellent leaders and workers but there was no collective leadership, no political direction, no political activity or struggle, or enforcement of decisions and accountability. The rank and file, therefore, became disillusioned and the party was gradually reduced to a ‘fan club’. He said that the party chief nominated his friends as chief organisers and chief campaign managers who were not really interested in building the party image and made no serious preparations for the local bodies polls or general elections.
Mairaj pointed out that the basic strategy and efforts of these elements were to seek government support to reach the corridors of power. He pointed out they gave the analysis that as Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were out in the wilderness, the PTI, was the best choice of the military regime, which would then be forced to send strong “constituency candidates” to contest the elections on behalf of the PTI. He said that the party chief and his friends supported the referendum of Gen Musharraf to achieve this task which had no moral, legal, or political justification, and which lowered the standing in the democratic circles and completely alienated the party from the masses.
He said the public meetings in Lahore and Rawalpindi, and the strategy for both the local and general elections also flopped. According to him, the “miracle” they expected did not take place and when it become clear that the government was in fact patronising the PML-Q, Imran strongly rejected the strategy of ‘collaboration’ and started attacking the Chaudhury’s of Gujrat. It was, however, already too late, Mairaj said, adding, “cricket is by chance but politics certainly is not.” He said during the last many years the country had been in the grip of severe inflation, unemployment, “honour” killings, ethnic and sectarian violence, and terrorism.
He said the 1973 Constitution had been violated by the LFO and the supremacy of parliament itself had been undermined but the party did nothing to protest, demonstrate, and mobilise the masses on these burning issues. He said that the duality, lack of discipline, and disorder had paralysed the party and party was working as a commercial or social welfare organisation.
Mairaj advised Imran that a political party could not lead the people if it was being run through personal friends, retired civil and military officials, and professional managers, like a pressure group or an NGO.
He said that Imran was the hero of the World Cup for the people but they did, not accept him as a deliverer (Nijaat Dahanda) or the political leader. He pointed out that for the present, there was no elected organ in the party other than the central office-bearers while all other elected provincial organisations had been unnecessarily dissolved which created a leadership crisis.
He said the ambiguity and lack of clarity in the policies had created confusion within the party, whether it was an Islamic democratic, social-democratic party or a Left-wing, Right-wing, or Centrist party.
Mairaj said that Imran and he jointly finalised the names for the Central Executive Committee last month but Imran subsequently violated and announced that all those invited to the meeting on April 6 in Islamabad, would become members of the CEC, for six months. He said being Secretary-General of the party, he disagreed on this step of the party chief and decided to resign from the CEC and SG posts.