Internal fissures in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were visible on the social media on Monday when several ministers backed Jahangir Tareen when Foreign Minister and the party's Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi urged the former to refrain from attending government meetings.
Jahangir Khan Tareen and several other ministers including Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry and Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda took to Twitter and lent support to Tareen, after Qureshi in a press conference in Lahore urged Tareen to avoid attending the government meetings.
"There's only one man in my life whom I consider my leader & to whom I'm answerable. His name is Imran Khan. I've stood by his side through thick and thin and will continue to do so till my last breath, IA. What others may say for their own strange reasons does not concern me," Tareen stated in a tweet in an apparent response to Qureshi.
This was followed by Faisal Vawda's tweet who stated that Tareen sits in official meetings on the insistence of cabinet members. "JKT [Jahangir Khan Tareen] sits in official meetings on the insistence of cabinet members including myself.
He has selflessly done a lot for the party. We respect him as a senior colleague & learn from his expertise. Nobody in the party can DICTATE us, PM is our leader & we take instructions from him only," Vawda stated.
Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry also came forward in support of Tareen and gave credit to him for PTI being in the power. "If PTI is in the power today, it is because of the major role played by Jahangir Tareen. He is attending the cabinet meetings on the desire of the Prime Minister. Senior leaders respect the desire of the Prime Minister.
The court verdict against him [Tareen] was unfortunate due to which he was out of the elections but not from the hearts of the PTI workers," Chaudhry insisted.
In December 2017, Supreme Court disqualified Tareen under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution on a petition filed by Hanif Abbasi for mis-declaration of assets.