PTI leaders must have breathed a sigh of relief after their candidates won the election for Senate chairman and deputy chairman, winning back some lost pride for the party as well, but their celebrations wouldn’t have lasted too long since they are already confronted with the next crisis. And that is the question of the most important province and the main battleground for PTI’s next electoral feud with PML-N, Punjab, where discontent with the Buzdar government has spread into PTI as well.
So far the prime minister has resisted all sorts of pressure to replace Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. But now, after the Senate scare where the ruling party came within a whisker of losing electoral legitimacy, there are reports that PM Khan has at least accepted that ‘fixing Punjab’, so to speak, is the party’s next number-one priority.
The party knows very well that Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh’s defeat in the crucial Senate poll owed, in addition to widespread corruption of course, to the fact that a number of lawmakers were unhappy with him because his handling of the economy had made life very difficult for the common man, which they never hear the end of whenever they visit their constituencies.
In Punjab, too, high prices and the general perception that the provincial government just lacks the ability and experience to deliver in a manner that the circumstances demand has now forced even senior PTI members to try and convince Imran Khan of the necessity of change in the province. So far the PM’s heard none of it. But some of his senior ministers feel that he might slowly be coming round to accepting it now. Yet even as he does that, he’s finding out that changing things at such a level, especially at such a time, is easier said than done.
The biggest stumbling block is going to be engineering a vote of confidence for whoever is going to replace Buzdar, considering how the party is split into many groups and the need to accommodate allies. There’s also the fact that whoever is considered should also be to the liking of the Chaudharys of PML-Q since they wield considerable influence in the province and the assembly and one of the reasons that Buzdar has made it so far is the fact that he listens to them and makes them feel like the effective chief ministers of the province. So it’s a question of either finding someone they won’t have too many problems with or inviting them to form the new cabinet in Punjab, which of course wouldn’t be acceptable to many in the party’s own rank and file.
All this puts Prime Minister Imran Khan in a very awkward position. He has no easy options and he does not have much time. He must feel very disappointed after putting his complete faith in the Buzdar administration and backing it even in the face of criticism from within the party. Now, however, it seems he understands the need to submit to the writing on the wall and finally deliver the axe to the Punjab government. Either that or institute substantial changes that will have decisive effect.
The party must also brace for the severe storm of criticism that will come from the opposition, which has led the charge on the Buzdar setup since day-one. Punjab is, after all, where PTI will have to battle it out with PML-N, so the sooner the ruling party is able to put this episode behind it, that too in a way that the new system delivers to the people’s satisfaction, the better for its chances in the next election. Everything now depends on whether the prime minister thinks the situation can be salvaged with mere cosmetic changes, as he’s tried to do for two-and-a-half years, or if the time has indeed come to press the reset button in Punjab.
