Politician Imran Khan is many things to many people. His foes call him naïve and unprincipled but to his fans he is a stubborn fighter for fair and just politics. That is also the image his Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party tries to project of its leader but it took some knocking during the recent reorganisation of the PTI by Imran Khan.

This week the PTI chairman replaced elected party officials at the central and provincial levels with nominated “party organisers”. It was done in the name of implementing the recommendations made by retired Justice Wajihuddin Ahmad as head of the tribunal created to settle the very public and prolonged infighting in the PTI that had followed its intra-party election held just before the May 2013 general election in the country. Political analysts foresaw the infighting as the PTI had emerged a formidable ‘third force’ in the national politics from the general election.

Read: Despite reshuffle, no change in PTI’s top leadership

Justice Wajih had found the intra-party exercise flawed, with many PTI leaders having played foul, and recommended fresh elections to party offices – not nominations as done now by Imran Khan after dragging the issue for long.

A war of words ensued between Justice Wajih and PTI’s Core Committee with an “arrogant” Imran Khan dissolving the party’s election tribunal – only for his “pragmatic” one to promise earlier this month to honour the tribunal’s recommendations “in letter and spirit”.

What he has done though is to appoint temporary organisers of the party and claim he has carried out Justice Wajih’s order. But the retired judge contends that Imran Khan has made the same old tainted PTI leaders part of a caretaker setup. None of these organisers should be allowed to participate in the next election in the PTI, he says.

Also read: Imran terms Model Town JIT report shocking

Regardless of how this tussle between the two settles, the new development has revived intra-party rivalries.

PTI leaders assert in background discussions that Khan has kept the inner sanctum of the party intact at the central level, while they see the new faces in the interim PTI setups in the provinces on test in organising the party in coming weeks and months. They seem most interested in how former governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar wins hearts and minds of the old party guards in Punjab.

“Of course, there is going to be a strong reaction from those who claim they toiled hard to bring the current competitive edge to the party,” said an office bearer of now dissolved organisational setup in Punjab.

Also read: Analysis: PTI party poll dilemma

Chaudhry Sarwar is a skilled veteran of British party politics but to many in the PTI he is “an outsider to our politics”.

Because of this perception of the man, Imran Khan has kept half of the administrative divisions of Punjab under his control, although Chaudhry Sarwar has been given the position of “national organiser” in the new party setup, a party insider confided to Dawn.

According to the formal notification of PTI, the largest and most populated province of Punjab, with 148 seats in the National Assembly, has been divided further for reorganising the party. Shah Mehmood Qureshi will have the additional responsibility for Multan, Sahiwal, DG Khan and Bahawalpur divisions besides his native constituency, while Chaudhry Sarwar will look after Faisalabad, Lahore, Sargodha, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi. Likewise, general secretary Jahangir Tareen will take care of his interests as chief organiser in the new setup.

That puts a question mark on the roles of former president of PTI Punjab Chaudhry Ijaz and opposition leader Haroon Rasheed in the Punjab Assembly. A serving PTI MNA posed the question said a timely intra-party election is the only way forward. “Otherwise the party will suffer intense fissures with these hand-picked organisers running the show.”

The situation is not much different in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There Yousuf Ayub has been made chief organiser. As the party is ruling the province, there may not be much hue and cry at the moment. But if the country goes into general elections, which Chairman Imran Khan predicts it will this year, “there is no way that other provincial party heavyweights allow Mr Ayub run the show single handedly,” said an incumbent provincial minister.

Also read: Appointment of organisers disappoints PTI old guard

PTI MNA Dr Arif Alvi has been nominated the chief organiser in Sindh and Humayun Jogezai in Balochistan. PTI is no strong showing in the two provinces.

In the new party setup Dr Shireen Mazari has been downgraded from being information secretary of the party to spokesperson for the chairman - but with the additional responsibility of chief whip in the National Assembly. Naeemul Haq is the new information secretary.

According to a party insider, Dr Mazari is not happy with the new arrangement.

Although Imran Khan has appointed Tasneem Noorani as chief election commissioner to hold the next intra party elections, uncertainty looms large over party affairs as no time frame has been announced for the democratic exercise and Justice Ahmad continues holding meetings of his election tribunal.

It meets next on June 1, perhaps to pour scorn on PTI’s decreed organizational set up. That means no respite for Imran Khan from political challenges to his declared mission – to oust PML-N in the next general election and rule the country.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2015

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