Former Imran Khan aide forming new party is straight out of Pakistan Army's playbook

Imran Khan's former close aide and sugar baron Jahangir Khan Tareen has floated a new party, Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), along with more than a hundred former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders who quit the party after the May 9 violence following the arrest of the former PM.

This development came after a reception held in Lahore on June 8, where leaders including Abdul Aleem Khan, Fawad Chaudhry and Ali Zaidi along with a bunch of others met Tareen, reported Dawn.

As of June 12, Abdul Aleem Khan has been nominated as the President and Aamir Mehmood Kiyani as Secretary General of the new party.

ALSO READ: Series of resignations shake Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party

PTI minus Imran Khan

• For many who left the PTI citing a break from politics, the break did not last long. Tareen's new party has been flocked by hundreds of former PTI stalwarts and legislators.
• Firdous Ashiq Awan, a minister of state under Imran held her former boss and his anti-military narrative responsible for the state of PTI.
• Being hailed as the king's party, with the army's backing, the IPP is being seen as almost similar to the PTI, without Imran's free will and attacks on the army.
• The party looks to make a significant dent in the PTI vote bank in the upcoming election, at least in Punjab.
• The new outfit is also joined by the 35-member 'Democrats group" of ex-PTI leaders led by Hashim Dogar and Dr Murad Raas.
• Imran has sharply reacted to these developments and said these 'manufactured parties' don't work. He added, “The effective governance that Pakistan now desperately needs comes from popular support, not from the establishment’s backing.”

With Caution

• In the wake of the inflow of ex-PTI members into IPP, some like Fawad Chaudhry and Ali Haider Zaidi showed some reluctance, keeping their cards hidden. Chaudhry, hiding his face at the party launch and Zaidi just 'wishing the party the best' at the reception shows them not throwing their full weight at once yet.

Under these circumstances, after the allocation of funds in the budget last week, the upcoming general elections might take place in October-November. 

A page from the establishment's 'playbook'

• Pakistan has constantly seen the manufacturing of King's parties by the army establishment to undermine the democratically elected governments and concentrate power in its own hands.
• Be it Ayub Khan, Zia-ul-Haq or Parvez Musharraf, military dictators have suppressed the will of the people by suspending the constitution, restricting political parties, backing favourable ones, and manipulating the judiciary to sideline popular leaders like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
• Interestingly, PTI which came to power in 2018, was also a kind of such manufactured party and was backed by the army.
• It's a matter of debate if the attempts have failed or excelled, these games by the army have left the Pakistani socio-economic foundations shaken, impacts of which we can see even today.