Is PTI a terrorist party?

Some political leaders in the government and ministers like Rana Sanaullah have been accusing Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of being a terrorist party for some time. Rana Sahib has been using very hard language since day one, even though he is an old politician, he himself has been a victim of establishment oppression, just three or four years ago a false drug case was registered against him, in which he has been acquitted. Unfortunately, when Rana Sahib himself became the Home Minister, he wants to do all the same repressive, brutal measures against his opposition. Nothing has been learned from the past.

A few days ago, Maryam Nawaz Sharif also held a harsh press conference, in which she repeatedly said that Imran Khan is a terrorist, his party is a terrorist organization instead of a political party, so its Imran Khan and his party should be dealt with like a terrorist group. This would probably mean crushing them mercilessly, and in doing so, resorting to extra-legal measures too.

All this was going on as a routine, but suddenly from the last two days a systematic campaign has started in the social media as well. Various writers have been advancing the same point that PTI and militant organization TTP have a lot in common. Some have even compared PTI with Baloch extremist organizations. This is an interesting case study of where this line suddenly trickled into social media. However, if the statements of Maryam Nawaz and other PML-N members are being seen, it is not difficult to connect the links.

In my opinion, the correct way to draw a conclusion is to look at the manifestos, goals and narratives of extremist organizations and compare it with PTI. If the allegation is correct, it will be proved, otherwise the contradiction will appear.

This is important because the narrative of extremist organizations is their strength, a few basic points on which their entire struggle and intellectual support rests. They cannot deviate from it even if they want to.

Whether it is Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or Baloch extremist factions or Daesh, Al-Qaeda or Hizb-e-Tahrir, which has a slightly softer stance, they all have a central point that they are against the Pakistani constitution, parliamentary democracy, fundamental rights of citizens, the current judicial system and thy do not accept  Pakistan’s international agreements.

Since the Baloch extremist groups are separatists, they do not accept the state at all, while the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is not concerned with the state, but it does not accept the current form of the state. All these extremist groups cannot deviate from their central points without losing their narrative, recruiting appeal and all intellectual support.

Keeping this background in mind, we compare the narrative of extremist organizations and that of Tehreek-e-Insaaf. Interestingly, it does not require much effort, several important differences are revealed at first glance.

Constitution, Democracy, Political Order

 The first difference is that PTI believes in the constitution, democracy and political order. The PTI even says that the government is not following the constitution and the law. They say that the PDM is adopting an undemocratic attitude. On the contrary, extremist organizations do not believe in these three.

Tehreek-e-Insaf is demanding elections as per constitution. Especially in the two provincial where assemblies were dissolved as per constitution and it is mandatory to held elections of these assemblies within ninety days as the larger bench of the Supreme Court has also given clear decision in this regard.  On the other hand, all the extremist groups are totally against the elections. They call it a bogus practice and do not believe in the election and its results.

Pakistani armed forces

Extremist groups in their false propaganda call Pakistan Army a proxy army and a tool of global forces. This is their very important narrative because if they believe the forces to be right, then their justification for taking up arms ends.

On the contrary, the leader of Tehreek-e-Insaaf has repeatedly said in his statements that Pakistan Army is ours and we are his. They express grief over the martyrdom of army men and officers and only two or three days ago Imran Khan has expressed solidarity with the forces.

interestingly, a large number of retired senior military officers are in favor of PTI’s narrative. Among them are several senior retired officers with important military honors. If Tehreek-e-Insaf was anti-army, why would all these ex-servicemen support its narrative?

Pakistan’s International Agreements

The fourth major difference is that PTI is bound by all the international agreements and all the rules and regulations made with the United Nations and its subsidiaries and it has no problem with them. However, when Imran Khan talks about independent foreign policy, it is a matter of principle, which is the slogan of every Pakistani political party. Imran Khan’s speech in the General Assembly became famous. Imran Khan’s speeches and efforts also play an important role in smoothing the atmosphere against Islamophobia at the United Nations level. On the contrary, the extremist organizations do not believe in any international agreement, most of them are against the United Nations and do not believe in any international agreement.

Courts, judicial system

 Tehreek-e-Insaf is a supporter of the judiciary, they certainly want reforms in the judicial system, but they want to continue the same pattern. Leader of Tehreek-e-Insaf is appearing in High Courts and other courts in connection with his cases. One of his technical constraints is that the government has deliberately registered numerous cases against him so that he cannot go everywhere and arrest warrants are issued.

However, Tehreek-e-Insaf is a strong supporter of the current judicial system, it has no intention to abolish the courts and replace them with Qazis. On the contrary, extremist organizations do not want this. Every extremist organization is against the Pakistani judiciary and judicial system, they want to bulldoze it and bring their own self-made justice system.

Supporting basic structure of the constitution

 According to some decisions of the Supreme Court, fundamental rights, federal system, parliamentary democracy and Islamic clauses are the basic structure of the Pakistani constitution. It cannot be deviated from under any circumstances.

Tehreek-e-Insaf believes in federal system, parliamentary democracy, Islamic provisions, fundamental rights and wants to maintain them. Extremist organizations especially TTP do not believe in any of them. It is in favor of creating a caliphate-like system of his own style, in which there is no election, no democracy, etc. Therefore, extremist organizations have no similarity with Tehreek-e-Insaaf in terms of their manifesto, goals, narrative and organizational structure. Not even a little. The fact is that Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s narrative is in every respect opposite and different to extremist organizations.