ISLAMABAD - The recent affection and benevolence of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on the electables, who have joined his party in droves, have surprised many but not those who knew his impulsive nature and wavering stance, which kept on changing most of the times drastically.

Once considered pariahs in Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and party chairman Imran Khan used to dub them the ugly faces of the Pakistani politics and symbols of status quo, now he seemed defending these electables and justifying their adoption and absorption in the party only to ensure stepping into the power echelons.

A critical view of Imran Khan’s politics revealed that even when his party had not hit the popularity he had taken many summersaults and U-turns.

Soon after the October 1999 coup and toppling of Nawaz Sharif government, PTI Chairman Imran Khan attempted to come closer to the military dictator and even supported him but when he failed to make inroads into the power corridors after 2002 elections he took a U-turn and turned against him.

In those days, Imran Khan raised the slogan of bringing a change in the national politics, which at that time he considered not possible with the old faces, and even up till 2013 general elections he was having the same views.

But now he was seen defending induction of electables and granted preference to them on the old and diehard party loyalists standing with him in thick and thin. Now he was of the view that without having electables in the party fold it would not possible to win elections as just loyalty and longstanding affiliation with the party is not sufficient to get the party ticket.

In his recent television interviews, Imran Khan said that in certain constituencies without electables one could not even think of winning elections, adding he believed in making the institutions strong and whosoever would be in their fold would automatically be moulded in the system.

The impulsive nature of PTI Chief Imran Khan not only landed him in difficult position but also landed the party in embarrassing position making it hard for the party leadership to defend his decisions and policies.

The recent in the list was the appointment of caretaker chief minister Punjab when Shahbaz Sharif picked Tariq Khosa, included in the list of the names proposed by PTI, but a few hours later withdrew his candidature in the face of severe criticism on his candidature in social media.

The U-turn rather about turn was so sudden and abrupt that the PTI Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Mahmoodur Rashid found it hard to defend it and ultimately faced embarrassment.

Right from staging sit-in alleging massive rigging in the 2013 general elections to the formation of judicial commission and initiation of probe into the Panamagate scandal, PTI moves were replete with massive U-turns, which even led to dubbing Imran Khan as U-Turn Khan on social media.

The impulsive reaction of PTI Chief Imran Khan on sensitive political issues was causing a lot of problems for him and his party, admitted some of the senior party leaders who did not want to be named and said that this casual handling of sensitive political issues had caused enormous damage to the party’s popularity, especially in the educated class, which mainly attracted to PTI and Imran Khan in the name of change and bringing in and introducing middle class political leadership.

The claim of ‘35 punctures’ in 2013 general elections and the retraction from this very serious nature of allegations by just saying that it was a political statement would not do any good to Imran Khan and would only lower his political stature and make an impression of him as a non-serious person.

Once again taking of an extreme position against other main political players in the arena like Pakistan People’s Party had also landed the PTI leadership in an awkward position when in elections for Senate Chairman and Deputy Chairman the party had to vote for PPP-backed candidate for deputy chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwala.

Similarly, the fresh statement of Imran Khan that he would sit on opposition benches instead of forming coalition government with PPP was again an impulsive statement not wise on part of a national level leader, as in politics anything can happen and the situation after July 25 elections could compel Imran Khan to go for a coalition government in case of split mandate and obviously PPP would be one of the stakeholders in the exercise.