Former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar on Monday described his party’s unwillingness to negotiate with parties of the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance as a “big mistake,” stressing it is time for everyone to take two steps back.
“While the PTI is a political reality that polled 16.8 million votes, the PDM also made it to Parliament with 22.5 million votes,” he told Kashif Abbasi on ARY News during his first interview since resigning as the PTI secretary general after the May 9 riots. “May 9 was a wake-up call, and everyone must take two steps back,” he said, adding that blaming “some personalities” of an institution—a reference to the Army—was akin to blaming the institution as well as the whole nation.
To a question, he said he did not agree with the current strategy of PTI Chairman Imran Khan. In recent days, Khan has once again been trying to muster his supporters to stage protests against his potential arrest, but has thus far failed in his efforts. He also frequently accuses the Army chief and other senior military officials of wanting to “sideline” him.
Stressing that he had no intention of continuing in politics with any party except the PTI, Umar made it clear that its vote-bank was that of Khan and no other PTI leader. Any decision on a “minus Imran” formula, he said, must come from Khan himself or else the party could just disappear. “Those who are telling Khan what he is doing is excellent and that he has to stand his ground have, in fact, no good intentions for the PTI chairman,” he warned, lamenting that the advice of the party’s senior leadership was ignored in the decision-making that eventually resulted in the May 9 riots.
“We should have taken the election date that the government was giving us,” he said, referring to negotiations in April and May in which the ruling coalition had agreed to polls in September after the dissolution of the National Assembly in June. Khan, he said, had refused to accept the deal and said only immediate dissolution of Parliament would be acceptable. He further explained that everyone except Shah Mahmood Qureshi at a meeting of party leaders—without Khan—had agreed that the proposed election date should be accepted.
To another question, he said around 80 percent of PTI MNAs had been against resigning from their seats from the National Assembly after Khan lost a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. On whether he would experience backlash over his comments, he said the prevailing situation required people to speak up for the betterment of the country. “It is not easy, but it needs ethical courage,” he said, adding he had discussed this with the party’s senior leadership but had been ignored. He acknowledged that PTI supporters would not support his arguments, adding he would defend himself.
“I take no responsibility for this crisis within the party. In my opinion, Imran Khan should prepare himself for modification in his current stance,” he said, adding that the people decide the future of a leader. However, he clarified, this did not mean a leader who has committed a crime should be forgiven without punishment.
Unjustified decision
In a statement issued after the interview, the PTI accused Umar of being “self-serving,” adding that he could not justify his decision to exit the party office. “Ambiguity and confusion are evident in Asad Umar’s thoughts; Asad Umar’s claims that he stepped down from the duties of secretary general due to disagreements over the chairman’s strategy appear to contradict reality,” it said.
“If Asad Umar disagreed with the decisions of the chairman or the party and did not think it appropriate to go through with them, he should have parted ways [with the PTI],” it stated, adding that he had only resigned after the party was “targeted” following the May 9 riots. “His personal interest may be hidden in it, but not the party’s,” it alleged.
To Umar’s criticism of the PTI’s unwillingness to negotiate with the ruling alliance, the statement alleged that there had been “numerous efforts” to discuss national issues with all political parties. “Asad Umar himself used to take this position that whenever he tried to talk to these parties, they did not discuss any agenda other than the acquisition of NRO,” it said, while blaming the ruling alliance for the collapse of negotiations regarding elections.
“If Asad Umar had taken a principled stand and decided to secede [from the party] before the hard times fell on it, perhaps there would have been more weight in his words,” it added.