“Tout brothers”, “Bastd”, “Aadha teetar, aadha batair”. Such words are openly used by PTI members, current and former, to talk to each other in public. Private conversations are reportedly even more furious and fiery, with grievances and accusations marring nearly every meeting. Party unity ka ‘programme tou warrh gya’. Infighting within parties is nothing new.
When Nawaz Sharif was removed from the post of prime minister and subsequently incarcerated, many analysts predicted that the party would disintegrate, split itself along the ideological lines of the two brothers at the helm, Nawaz and Shehbaz, the proverbial noon and sheen. We were told that many PML-N leaders did not want to accept Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Nawaz as the head of the party in her father’s absence.
We knew that many in the party wanted Nawaz Sharif to befriend the establishment again while others opposed it. We saw Chaudhry Nisar walk away from the party. We were told Shahid Khaqan Abassi was unhappy. But what we did not see was party members calling each other “tout” and “BC”, like we can now with PTI.
The most popular party in the country is slugging it out in a very public brawl. Leaders are calling each other out by name, raising questions about each other’s loyalty, airing their dirty laundry in full view of the general public. With Imran Khan in jail, the party is like a headless chicken, running around aimlessly. And it does not seem like any leader is immune to the temptation of behaving in an unruly and undisciplined manner.
Ali Amin Gandapur vs Hammad Azhar As the only PTI leader to hold a position of true power, Ali Amin Gandapur, the Chief Minister of PTI’s power base Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has the unenviable task of managing the responsibilities of his constitutional post with the expectations of his party’s protests.
He has led two protests now, being the only known face at the second one, disappearing afterwards for hours, only to appear later in his province, after reportedly cordially meeting or being roughed up by the powers that be. And then media reported that his motives had been questioned by Hammad Azhar, a PTI leader who is missing in action since quite a long time. During a party meeting where PTI decided to call off its Oct 15 protest, Hammad insisted that the protest be held, despite the SCO starting on the same day.
An irate Gandapur reportedly replied, “You are in hiding yourself yet you are telling party members to come out and protest.” He then pointed his guns towards PTI Punjab. “I came to Islamabad twice [to protest] but PTI Punjab leadership could not be found anywhere.”
Sher Afzal Marwat vs Everyone At one point the most popular leader of the party behind Imran Khan, Marwat the Maverick has seen his star wane after constant battles within the party forced him to leave the center stage. The media’s darling in the early part of this year, Marwat landed in hot water with his colleagues over his outspokenness.
He was criticized at committee meetings, deemed unsuitable for the position of PAC chairman and asked to apologize to party Chairman Gohar Khan. In August, an alleged notification issued by PTI showed the party asking Marwat to resign from his post. It was later on proved to be false. In his latestattack on PTI, Marwat alleged on Sunday that the KP government, led by Ali Amin Gandapur, did not want Imran Khan to be released from jail. A day later he said Ali Amin’sactions could pave the way for Governor Raj in the province.
Salman Akram Raja vs Faisal Chaudhary The affable lawyer Faisal Chaudhry, brother of Fawad Chaudhry, fell victim to Party Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja’s wrath, who removed the advocate from the party’s WhatsApp groups in a fit of rage. Party sources said that Faisal’s unauthorized media talk to journalists outside Adiala Jail proved to be the final straw but Faisal himself said that he was penalized for telling thetruth to Imran Khan when he met him a few days earlier in Adiala jail.
At the time of filing this report, Imran Khan has reportedly played mediator and resolved the fight between the two. But the spat led to the following mega brawl. Fawad Chaudhry vs Azhar Mashwani vs Raoof Hassan Though Fawad Chaudhry is no longer a member of PTI, he does seem to be committed to accepting Imran Khan as his leader. Once considered a very close aide of Imran Khan, Fawad still comments on matters that other members consider none of his business. He appeared on Gharidah Farooqui’s show, leading to a polite disagreement with Shahbaz Gill.
However, he later changed gears and decided to outright criticize party leaders, leading to public spats on Twitter. Mashwani took the opportunity of using Faisal’s removal from party WhatsApp groups to tell Fawad on Twitter, in so many words, that he needed to criticize the “zaalim and not the mazloom”.
Meanwhile, Raoof Hassan took to Twitter to call Faisal and Fawad the “tout brothers” and declared Faisal’s entry into the legal team a “sinister attempt” to create divisions within the party. Never one to mince his words, Fawad replied by calling Raoof a “baard”and a “BC”, pointing out that Faisal had contested the cases of 500 PTI workers pro bono while Raoof took a salary.
Aleema Khan vs Bushra Bibi Reportedly, Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan, the most politically active member of his family, and his wife Bushra Bibi have also clashed multiple times since Khan’s arrest and subsequent incarceration.
In August this year, many journalists talking to Imran inside Adiala Jail reportedly said that they heard Aleema and Bushra shouting at each other in a tiff over a female lawyer.
Around the same time, a message allegedly sent by Aleema Khan to Raoof Hasan asked him not to spread a “foolish” message that Bushra Bibi had sent, was leaked to the public.
However, the two have never publicly criticized each other.
