Open letter to PTI leadership
Salam 
PTI secured around 7 million votes in last elections to emerge as the second largest political party by number of votes polled. These people voted for to give an opportunity to a political party that was led by a Charismatic leader who had a proven track record of successful charitable projects. Imran Khan until then was untested as a political figure. People voted to give him an opportunity to show his capability to deliver good governance and emerge as a viable opposition in the center. When PTI decided to engage in street agitation to seek electoral reforms and inquiry into last elections everyone was excited that the transformation of the country is going to start. The series of jalsas culminated by the call for a long march to force the hand of the government to speed up the reforms process. But along the way the demands changed from electoral reforms to toppling of the government and demanding resignation from the sitting PM. When these demands were announced the question was raised that the number of people that show up for the long march will decide whether these demands have popular support or not. When the long march finally descended upon Islamabad numbers started pouring in. I heard wild variation in numbers from 25,000 to 250,000. But let’s suppose the top number participated i.e. 250,000 which turns out to be 3.5% of the total votes polled by the party. How do we ascertain that this 3.5% also has the silent support of those that did not prticipated. It is important to answer this question because based on this question the legitimacy of the intransigent attitude to link all other demands to the resignation of the PM can be justified. I did my own survey of people that include those that gave donations to the party; those that voted for the party; those that did not voted this time but promised to vote next time if we performed and those that made comments on the pages of the leaders of PTI. It is clear to me personally that people feel that the rigidity of PTI to link all other demands to the resignation of the PM is unjustified. I also asked people what would they want PTI to do. Most people told me to seek a deal that achieve following:
- Electoral reforms within a set deadline
- Judicial Inquiry into the irregularities in last elections
- Fresh elections once electoral reforms are completed
- Today the question of seeking resignation of PM by street protest has been elevated from being related to a person to the viability of State. The widespread view is that by asking resignation from the PM through street protest will severely undermine the foundations of the state and will be disrespect to rule of law. PTI insistence on this point will also seriously jeopardize its support among the people. We should rather link resignation of the PM to the finding of the judicial commission that if it is confirmed that irregularities were committed then PM should resign and new elections called. The prolonged stalemate is stressing the nation resulting in huge economic loss and international standing of the country. All of us have to work to resolve it without derailing the system. This is my open letter to PTI and will be released to media.
Thanks & regards
Abdul Quayyum Khan Kundi
Former President Pakistan Chamber of Commerce USA and Member PTI Advisory Committee
