ISLAMABAD           -         The recent admission of infighting and grouping within the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf by Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry has opened a new Pandora’s box.

Political analysts stated that the frank and candid criticism of his own party by Fawad Chaudhry has shed new light on the glaring differences within the ruling PTI.

Infighting and grouping within the party is not a new phenomenon or a startling new revelation but Fawad Chaudhry’s interview has given greater credence to the inner bickering at a time when Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government is under sharp criticism for not implementing the much talked about reforms agenda.

Chaudhry, one of the important Cabinet members of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has admitted in an interview to a US media outlet that internal rifts within PTI’s top leadership caused damage to the party’s reforms agenda.

He regretted that bickering among the top party leadership including Jahangir Khan Tareen, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Umar pushed the political class out of the game making a vacuum to be filled up by the people from the non-political background who are not aligned with PM’s ideas.

Though it is not the first time that Chaudhry, who is known for his blunt and controversial remarks, has stunned many by questioning the performance of his party, yet many political workers and commentators take the timing of his disclosures as worth noting. They state that Chaudhry is not the one to shoot from the back but his remarks indicate a deeper meaning.

One possibility can be that PM himself is not happy both with the technocrats working around him and the top leaders of his party for not helping him to implement his reforms agenda and Chaudhry has been used as a messenger to give them a warning. Other can be that ‘the powers that be’ are not satisfied with the performance of the ruling party.

Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, was introduced into the ranks of PTI with the efforts of party leader Jahangir Khan Tareen who is under fire for some time for his alleged role in the sugar scam.

Another view is that Fawad Chaudhry has tried to shift the blame by stating that top leadership is equally responsible for the whole mess the party is witnessing.

Those who are opposed to Fawad Chaudhry within the party state that the politician from district Jhelum himself has caused an irreparable loss to the party by bringing infighting of the party into the public sphere on a number of occasions.

They allege that he wants to remain in the limelight by giving controversial statements and ,therefore, has damaged the party’s position.

Fayazul Hassan Chuhan, the Punjab Information Minister, gave a strong rebuke to Fawad’s statements yesterday — and asked him to resign.

Fawad is not likely to resign. Neither he is expected to lie low. More fireworks are expected.