Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is a party for change but the one brought about by its chairman, Imran Khan, has caused ripples in PTI. In fact, the change is a reverse swing. Mr Khan has brought back Umar Cheema as his spokesman.

Dr Shireen Mazari retains her position of Information Secretary of PTI, but supposedly restricted to presenting the party’s stand and narratives on weighty political and strategic issues.

Some observers see this division of labour between the two PTI spin doctors as reflecting unease of the party chairman at the increasing attacks on him by a reinvigorated PML-N, and so the need of a robust voice to respond to the ruling party, and other detractors of PTI.

Ms Mazari must be more suited for fighting intellectual battles than the rough ones, according to them.

Whatever, insiders say the change has caused ripples in the party. They say that being a senior PTI leader who held the propaganda front for two years; Dr Mazari did not take the change well. But since, like other parties, PTI too is synonymous with its founder, Imran Khan’s word prevails.

“Of late, the party leadership had not been happy with her handling of media,” confided one PTI leader. “One narrative doing rounds is that she lacked the ability to whittle a telling response to ever-increasing criticism of Imran Khan by the PML-N’s media wing.”

After the PTI called off its sit-in on the Constitution Avenue in December, the PML-N government’s media managers went after Mr Khan with such frenzy that it often left the PTI leadership gasping for a response. What the media cohorts expected a counterblast from the PTI - more so because it was in the opposition - but were fed merely defence, “a pattern that had emerged under Dr Mazari,” said the leader.

According to a PTI source close to the chairman’s office, the decision to change the spokesperson was “taken after due deliberation”.

“For the past few months, the party has been going through a bad patch and the media management added to its woes. There were reports that mediapersons were losing interest in its affairs,” said the source.

Then, like other parties, PTI is also ridden with groupings, which are constantly competing for space in the party to gain upward political mobility. The party’s unelected general secretary, Jahangir Khan Tareen, vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the additional secretary, Saifullah Khan Niazi, are said to have their own group of trusted companions in the party’s central office.

Some insiders attribute the removal of Dr Mazari as spokesperson for the party chief to these undercurrents.

This raises the question why Umar Cheema? Why not somebody else could speak for Imran Khan to the media? Mr Cheema joined PTI in 1996-97 as a worker in tehsil Wazirabad (Gujranwala district) and has risen in ranks since then. In 2007, he got the prized post of party’s central information secretary and lasted there until October 2011 when Shafqat Mehmood replaced him. Just before the May 2013 election humdrum, the charge was given to Dr Mazari.

Partymen recall that despite his relegation Mr Cheema remained loyal to the party’s cause. But when he decided to contest the office of party president in the intra-party election against the seasoned Javed Hashmi, he was cast a rebel.

Mr Cheema lost that election and also the confidence of the party leadership. But he did not leave the party which seems to have paid off.

As good luck would have it, self-proclaimed rebel Javed Hashmi left the party in the middle of the dharna, accusing Mr Khan of playing in the hands of military establishment to destabilise the democratic setup in the country. And now he is the chosen spokesman for the mighty PTI chairman.

Published in Dawn March 7th, 2015

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