GUJRAT: The annoyance of ‘ideological’ workers as well as the rift in the local rank and file of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Jhelum chapter are said to be the major causes of Imran Khan’s flop show as participation of the public at the [planned] meeting in Zameer Jafari Stadium on Wednesday was very thin.

The public meeting had been organised by PTI’s information secretary Fawad Chaudhry, a party candidate for NA-67 and PP-27 (Pind Daden Khan-Khewra-Jalalpur Sharif-Lilla), whereas his cousin Chaudhry Farrukh Altaf is contesting for NA-66 (Jhelum city-Dina-Sohawa).

It was learnt that prior to reaching the venue, the party chairman had to wait for more than an hour at Jhelum’s City housing scheme where his chopper landed so that the maximum number of participants could reach there before arrival of Imran Khan at the venue.

To the disappointment for the party leadership, that wait too could not bear fruit for them as a number of participants were said to be stuck up on way to the venue which Fawad Chaudhry said that the security checks were actually the cause of thin participation.

However, a part of stadium’s central ground had been filled with chairs as a large portion of the ground remained empty which, according to local journalists, was an indication that even the organisers were not expecting a large crowd.

According to the local PTI workers, the main cause [of the poor show] was the annoyance of ideological workers who had been the asset to the party but the leadership ignored their wishes by imposing candidates from a certain family having background of consistently changing loyalties in their political career.

A group of local party activists from Jhelum while commenting on the situation said that had the party given weight to the recommendations of the workers, it would not have seen such a disgrace at the hands of ‘so-called electables’ who joined the PTI during the last two years.

Adding they said the party might pay a heavy price on July 25 due to awarding tickets on both national assembly seats of the district to two cousins which was the root cause of the rift among the local rank and file.

They said Saqlain Chaudhry, former PTI candidate for NA-66 in 2013, had been a strong aspirant for this constituency whereas party’s district president Zahid Akhtar Mera was a contender for PP-25 (Dina-Sohawa) but they both were ignored who were the representatives of the ideological workers in Jhelum.

The local analysts said the flop public meeting had also exposed the weaknesses of the PTI candidates just a few days ahead of the polling day which was alarming particularly for Fawad Chaudhry [who is vying for two seats].

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2018