Karachi, Pakistan: “Politics is callous when politicians lack ethics.”
This is a line from a letter that the famous Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi wrote to one of his college friends, and the same is being experienced by PTI nowadays in Pakistan.
The PTI is infamous for its politics that lacks ethics—a party that introduces insulting names for everybody who dares to raise questions about the morality of the party. Founded by a person who refused to accept his daughter in court and then ran away from court orders when it was established that he was the father of a daughter who was not born out of wedlock, and whose alleged audio sex tapes appeared three years ago, telling everybody what kind of low personality he is.
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So, a party with no ethics is no longer supported by the masses, and the political campaign launched by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi during his visit to Sindh did not help re-establish any support for the party in Sindh. This once again exposed that PTI has lost public support, as fewer people joined his call to mobilise the public for the September 27 protest announced by the PTI.
Furthermore, the PTI leadership also failed to gain moral support from the PPP, which rules the province of Sindh, because PPP leadership does not want to stand with the chief minister of a party that has repeatedly insulted PPP leadership in the past, particularly President Asif Ali Zardari. It may be remembered that PTI’s founding chairman, Imran Khan, used to call Zardari “a thief and a robber.”
Today, PTI tried to join hands with the same PPP to keep itself politically alive but failed to garner support, as PTI has been exposed to the public as a party that has no moral values and can join hands with anybody for its political survival. In KP, PTI also tried to form an alliance with Fazlur Rehman of JUI-F, although PTI used to call him “Maulana Diesel.”
The question is: why does PTI want support from PPP to engage the public in Sindh? The answer is that PTI has no strong political base in Sindh, and a visit by the CM of KP, rallies and slogans cannot change the politics of a province. Strong political parties establish their place among the people through continuous presence, local leadership and grassroots organisation—something that is not available to PTI now.
Bringing CM Sohail Afridi to lead the political campaign in Sindh is itself a manifestation of the internal weakness of PTI. To create political space in a province, local leadership and faces who understand the political mood of Sindh are needed, not temporary political visits from outside.
PTI’s Sindh narrative also revolved around political disputes and issues concerning its central leadership instead of local issues. No clear strategy emerged on the basic issues of Sindh, such as water, agriculture, employment, education, health and the local government system.
Sohail Afridi’s visit made it clear that PTI has a voice, but in Sindh it lacks a strong political base, effective organisation and credible leadership at the local level. This is the main reason for PTI’s failure in Sindh.
