The ruling party is in a deeply unsettled state of being. The report on its foreign funding has sparked off renewed angst within its ranks. The odour of trouble is getting stronger by the day.

       There is something deeper at play here.

       The election commission had tasked a scrutiny committee to pore over the finer details of PTI’s accounts and accounting procedures to determine if the figures matched the claims. One of the party’s founder members Akbar S. Babar had alleged that PTI had concealed many sources of its funding and this included money coming in from foreign sources. The scrutiny committee took its own sweet time to do its due diligence — often at the cost of being accused of deliberately dragging its feet — but on Tuesday it dropped the bombshell in the form of its much anticipated report. It was not officially released but to the surprise of literally no one, it started circulating in WhatsApp groups a few hours later.

       It is a damning document. While the legal ramifications of the findings will unveil themselves under the heat of expert opinion, the political ones are already scorching through the public discourse. At the heart of these findings is the case of unaccounted for funds totaling more than Rs300 million. There is then the added factor of where the money originated from. As the process labours on, the PTI will have opportunity to provide a rational explanation for these discrepancies. These explanations may very well be accepted as genuine by the election commission and later by the courts if the case ends up there ultimately — but till then, the opposition will have a field day bludgeoning the ruling party with these accusations of misappropriation.

       Read more: Apex court, ECP urged to move against PTI over foreign funding

       This case has reinforced a trend that has been picking up pace in the last few months. This trend relates to the growing list of PTI’s problems that are slowly generating a perfect storm of quasi-existential crises. Why this sudden litany of woes? From tensions over key appointments to electoral defeats in home territories to increasing restlessness among the party’s electables, there appears to be a consistent reinforcement of failures that is chipping away at the durability of PTI tenure. Red Zone insiders acknowledge the presence of this strange and mysterious problem that is either triggering many of these woes or fanning them.

       Put simply, PTI is struggling to manage itself.

       This failure to manage situations before they become problems, and manage problems before they turn into crises is an ailment that is growing stronger by the day. It is manifesting itself in failure to manage people and their problems; a failure to manage projects and their outcomes; and a failure to manage parliamentary politics and its legislative complexities. These failures are also impacting the communication strategy of the party because, you see, when the gap between the brand and its marketing plan begins to widen, sales go down.

       Editorial: The PTI's resistance during the entire foreign funding case has raised questions

       Party insiders grumble that they should have better managed the fallout of the controversy over the appointment of the ISI DG last year. Some of these insiders who have a ringside view of the happenings inside the high echelons of the government believe that the government botched the political handling of the controversy because it did not grasp the nuances attached to the issue. Prudent political advice and leaders who could translate such advice into actionable outreach could have minimised the damage accrued. The party leadership could not keep its eye on the ball. Why?

       Something similar happened with the KP local government elections disaster. If the central party leadership had a firmer grip on the affairs of the province and had not allowed local party grandees to behave like political warlords with their own fiefdoms, the situation could have been different. It is true that inflation and related issues took a toll on the party performance, but mismanagement accentuated it. The party leadership was caught by surprise. Why?

       The fallout of the KP polls was a continuation of this political mismanagement. The party’s 2019 constitution was thrown out and the entire party structure dismantled without any deep level engagement and discussion with party faithfuls who had invested plenty of time, energy and passion into making the constitution. The deed is done but it has left a very large number of party people dejected, disappointed and disillusioned. The leadership did not factor this into its decision-making. Why?

       Read more: PTI workers resent dissolution of party structure, new formation

       The answer to these ‘whys’ is a long one. But it is reflected in one major discrepancy and weakness that continues to feature prominently in internal discussions and private complaints. This pertains to the absence of a very strong, very experienced and very effective political core inside the party that can act as a ‘braintrust’ for Prime Minister Imran Khan. The structure of the party and the government has evolved in a way that does not allow the development of such a core of political persons who can plan, pre-empt and troubleshoot problems before they become problems.

       There are forums that play certain roles. The cabinet may make formal decisions but it is too large, too unwieldy and too mired in the issues of governance to manage the hard politics of the party. The core committee is an advisory body and it too is very large in its composition to deal with such crucial matters. In any case, one key commonality among those in the core committee is their loyalty quotient, not their competence quotient. Political wisdom is a different trait altogether. The parliamentary party is also a large forum but not relevant to the problem at hand.

       Party insiders bemoan the absence of a ‘doer-in-chief’ — someone who has political gravitas, connections, credibility and access to the PM that may allow him to get things done fast. As things stand now, the PM Office has become relatively isolated from the rest of the day-to-day management of political currents and this leads to strange situations like the one reported about how the PMO expressed reservations about the finance bill after it had already been tabled in the National Assembly.

       “We have to change how we approach politics and governance,” says a PTI insider. He argues that there is little time left for big reforms and dramatic performances. “The only thing we can do and should do,” he argues, “is to manage our politics and our constituencies by leveraging the power of the government.” This is a call to go deep into thana-katcheri politics while being in power in order to win the next elections.

       But his advice is falling on deaf ears. For now. The disjointed management of politics is becoming more and more acute as fresh problems start to pile up. Today the foreign funding case has opened a new fault line for the PTI, tomorrow something else will rupture like a swollen artery. Unless the PTI learns to manage each problem as a project, and have someone constantly monitor and supervise the big political picture, its woes will continue to mount.

       There is still time. But not much.

       Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2022