Former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Faisal Vawda has claimed that Imran Khan’s decision not to contest for party chairmanship will be a precursor to further divisions in the party. He also added that the upcoming government would be a PDM ‘part two’.

Speaking on Rubaroo with Shaukat Piracha on Friday, Vawda said that the intra-party election marked the emergence of a lawyer group within the party while, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Khan’s sisters and wife were also vying for power.

He added that the Pakistan Peoples Party was also waiting in the wings to see which off the PTI’s splinter groups would join them to bolster their position in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and South Punjab.

The former PTI leader also claimed that Khan was eagerly awaiting a deal but was not being offered anything.

Vawda said that it was the beauty of the PTI that no one except Khan was ever given much weight. He added that PTI’s current crop had forgotten that culture.

He added that PTI had a mistake by interpreting the establishment’s defensive posture as a weakness.

Judiciary picks a ‘ladla’

Vawda said that there was an impression in the country that it was the establishment which picked leaders and brought them to power.

However, he claimed that it was actually the judiciary which picked a ‘ladla’ and set the direction in which the winds then blow.

Vawda added that courts in Pakistan conduct experiments through their ‘historic’ decisions.

He cited examples of Asif Zardari being sent to jail and Imran Khan being declared ‘sadiq and ameen’ as examples.

Why Gohar Khan

Vawda said that Khan had finally recognised that people around him had pushed him into a blind alley and was no longer trusting anyone. However, he added that the former PM had learnt his lesson too late.

He added that there were some in the party, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who would not be given relief even if he conducted a press conference. He said that another ‘Einstein’ in the party, a veiled reference to Asad Umar, had surprisingly gone scot free.

Clarifying that he was not comparing the two, Vawda said that Khan had used the same formula inappointing Gohar that he had used to appoint Usman Buzdar. He added Gohar would not go against the wishes of Khan.

Vawda said that Gohar would soon find out that there was no such thing as discipline in the party.

He added that there were still enough vultures in the party that Sher Afzal Marwat was villified for reporting the right thing.

Vawda said it was unfortunate that Khan could not find anyone who had stuck long enough with the party to be appointed chairman and had to turn to a lawyer.

PDM part two

Vawda also said that despite all the noise in the course of the election campaign, the next government would likely be a “Pakistan Democratic Movement part two”.

He said that the smaller parties including IPP and GDA would form an alliance and that the Pakistan Peoples Party would try to get one province for itself while trying to control the presidency.

He added that in a country where old faces were routinely shuffled around, it was useless to expect something new to happen.