Attending the APC only?

PTI founder Imran Khan’s declaration on Saturday that his party would attend the All-Parties Conference on the operation or vision Azm-e-Istehkam was purportedly ‘for the sake of Pakistan, but should be seen in the light of the declaration  by the 265th Corps Commanders Conference about the ‘unwanted criticism and deliberate misrepresentation’ of vision Azm-e-Istehkam. Mr Khan has attempted to show his base by saying that the PTI delegation will be at the APC as ‘observers’, that the PTI will still not talk to ‘thieves and dacoits’. He also maintained a guarded silence about the fate of the APC of opposition parties called by KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur the day before. He also made no comment on how the other parties which opposed the Azm-e-Istehkam operation, the ANP and the JUI(F), would react. However, Mr Khan was clearly abandoning an opposition alliance which had started over dissatisfaction with the election results, and which had got its first concrete issue.. It might not be appropriate to speculate about why he had decided to part ways, but perhaps it had become clear that his allies had not managed to help achieve either the fall of the government or his release from jail.

Mr Khan has long expressed the view that it is the establishment which gives power. He may well have decided that now was not the time to irritate the establishment further, even though the issue was a significant one for the PTI. The problem with Azm-e-Istehkam is that it might involve examination of how the KP government was conducted in the past. That might be papered over by saying that the two previous KP PTI CMs had left the party, but it might cramp Mr Gandapur’s style, as well as prevent him from providing the central PTI with help.

However, Mr Khan’s gesture must be taken up by the government if it is interested in a dialogue that will settle matters down. At present, Mr Khan does not acknowledge even the government’s right to rule. Attending the APC, even as observers, will acknowledge something at least. It also becomes something of a question whether an extension of the Nation Action Plan, which the government claims Azm-e-Istehkam to be, can be brought under consideration by the PTI, while such matters as the national economy cannot. The APC episode is making it obvious that the PTI is more interested in the persons behind the issue, more than the issue itself.