IT is remarkable how chaos seems to be the only constant with the PTI. Late on Thursday, it emerged that the party’s erstwhile secretary general, Omar Ayub Khan, had resigned from various positions he held within the party. The development followed a confrontation between Mr Ayub and angry PTI supporters earlier in the day after Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Imran’s pleas for suspension of sentence in the ‘iddat case’ were rejected. It also came amidst rumours of the formation of a forward bloc in the National Assembly. It seems that even die-hard loyalists like Hammad Azhar and Murad Saeed were taken off guard by Mr Ayub’s decision: in messages shared on social media platform X, the former asked that Mr Ayub reconsider, while the latter spoke passionately about the need for unity within the party’s ranks. It then emerged that the resignation had been tendered days earlier and had also been endorsed by the party’s jailed chief.

While Mr Ayub framed his decision as necessary because of the responsibilities he is entrusted with as opposition leader in the National Assembly, other party leaders seem to blame him for the PTI’s continuing inability to secure Mr Khan’s release. On Friday, one of the party’s maverick leaders, Sher Afzal Marwat, demanded senior party leader Shibli Faraz’s resignation on the same grounds. It is also worth noting that several former PTI leaders, who had previously parted ways with the PTI, have recently resurfaced to make their cases for re-entry into the party. The party’s most vocal supporters, meanwhile, have been getting increasingly restless and frustrated in the absence of any major breakthrough. Many will closely observe how the PTI moves forward, especially since its differences have now spilled out in the open. As far as it has come, internal discipline remains the Achilles’ heel of the party. How quickly it establishes order within its ranks may be critical to its survival.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024