News analysis
The Crisis of Second Tier Leadership in PTI
Islam Abad police are at Zaman Park to arrest the PTI chairman and former Prime Minister of Pakistan for implementing the court warrants. However, the arrest of IK is far beyond the limited scope of the arrest. Reportedly, the PTI workers are resisting the Police to arrest IK. There are reports of heavy shelling and tear gassing. However, despite repeated efforts, the Police have not been able to capture IK, as there is tenacious resistance from the PTI workers.
Irrespective of the merit of the arrest, the second-tier leadership is unavailable. The president of PTI, Ch Pervaiz Elahi, Usman Buzdar, Shafqat Mahmood, Moonis Elahi, and Raja Basharat, are unavailable. To be precise, all federal and provincial ministers in erstwhile PTI federal and provincial governments are unavailable. However, ordinary political workers are resisting.
It also goes on to show the party’s second-tier leadership structure. There is a void between Imran Khan and party workers. Secondly, most of the second-tier leadership is conventional politicians who join parties for political benefits and do not believe in political struggles, irrespective of the orientation of political work.
Therefore, critics attribute that if IK is jailed, there will be a political crisis for PTI, and they will not be able to win the coming elections. Second-tier leadership is also significant for the growth of a political party and plays a decisive role in the absence of first-tier leadership. Despite the soaring popularity of Ik and PTI, the absence of genuine second-tier leadership resonating with the emotions of party workers may prove to be a missing link in leadership. Furthermore, it might also dislocate the political performance of PTI in coming elections if IK is jailed or does not lead the political campaign.
