— PTI leaders face supporters’ wrath
Pictures of Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa interacting with PTI leaders at a family wedding have reopened old wounds within the party, exposing the tension between its anti-establishment narrative and the traditional courtesies of social life
By Zulqernain
A family wedding in Islamabad has unexpectedly turned into a political talking point, with photographs of former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa interacting with senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders triggering an angry reaction among the party’s supporters and raising questions about its much-publicised opposition to the establishment.
What would ordinarily have been an unremarkable social gathering attended by politicians from across the political divide has become a subject of heated debate on social media, particularly among PTI supporters who continue to hold Gen Bajwa responsible for the removal of Imran Khan’s government in April 2022.
The controversy erupted after photographs and videos from the wedding of a niece of PTI leader Atif Khan went viral.
The bride was married to the son of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Asad Alam Khan Niazi at a hotel in Islamabad, where several prominent political figures from both the opposition and ruling coalition were present.
Among those spotted at the event were former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, former army chief Gen Bajwa, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman and veteran politician Aftab Sherpao.
One photograph showing Barrister Gohar interacting with Gen Bajwa proved particularly controversial, drawing criticism from PTI supporters who questioned why party leaders were seen exchanging courtesies with a former army chief whom the party has repeatedly accused of engineering its ouster from power.
The reaction was perhaps best captured by Waqar Khan, a PTI digital media official in the United States, who wrote on X: “I kept trying to convince myself for a long time that this was a lie, that it was AI and that such a thing was simply impossible. But sadly, it was all true.”
His remarks reflected the sense of disillusionment among sections of the PTI support base, for whom Gen Bajwa remains a symbol of what they describe as the establishment’s intervention in democratic politics.
Since the removal of Imran Khan’s government through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022, the PTI has consistently blamed the military establishment, particularly Gen Bajwa, for facilitating the change of government. Mr Khan and several party leaders have repeatedly criticised the former army chief, accusing him of playing a central role in the political developments that led to the PTI’s ouster.
Although Gen Bajwa has largely stayed away from publicly engaging with these accusations, the military’s official position has been that the armed forces do not interfere in political affairs.
Against this backdrop, the wedding photographs have placed the PTI leaders in an awkward position, with party supporters questioning the apparent contradiction between the leadership’s public political stance and its social interactions.
Facing mounting criticism, Atif Khan offered an explanation, saying that Gen Bajwa had attended the wedding as a guest from the groom’s side and that the bride’s family had no role in inviting him.
In a video shared by a local journalist, Mr Atif said guests from the groom’s family were beyond the control of the bride’s family.
“At weddings, guests come. As for the criticism over Bajwa sahib’s presence, he was from the groom’s side,” he said.
He explained that the groom’s father, Asad Alam Khan Niazi, was a PPP MNA, a political figure and a former military officer who knew Gen Bajwa.
“The groom’s family had brought quite a number of guests. You can certainly ask them how many people they intend to invite so that arrangements can be made accordingly. But it is their choice whom they want to invite. The bride’s family cannot dictate whom they should or should not invite,” he said.
Mr Atif also rejected the suggestion that the interaction between PTI leaders and Gen Bajwa amounted to a clandestine meeting, pointing out that hundreds of people were present at the wedding.
“This was not a secret meeting. Hundreds of people were there. You cannot hatch conspiracies at a wedding, in front of hundreds of people, particularly when it was an accidental encounter,” he remarked.
He added that even his family had not known beforehand which guests would be attending from the groom’s side.
His explanation, however, did little to calm the angry supporters, many of whom appeared less concerned about the circumstances of Gen Bajwa’s invitation than about the willingness of their leaders to interact with him.
An X user, Arshad Munir, commenting on Mr Atif’s video, said he and others had even restricted relations with relatives who spoke against Imran Khan.
He argued that PTI leaders should have walked out of any gathering where Gen Bajwa was present, rather than exchanging courtesies with him.
The criticism has not been confined to Mr Atif.
Barrister Gohar and Mr Asad Qaiser have also come under fire, with some supporters questioning why their leaders should maintain social niceties with individuals they associate with the political circumstances that followed the PTI government’s removal.
Yet, the episode has also exposed another dimension of Pakistan’s political culture, where family relationships, social obligations and political rivalries frequently intersect.
For some observers and social media users, the gathering was less an exercise in political compromise than an illustration of the traditional courtesy that often survives even the sharpest political disagreements.
Zeeshan Khan, another X user, described the wedding as an unusual gathering that brought together prominent personalities from different political backgrounds.
“From Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and Barrister Gohar to Sherry Rehman, Asad Qaiser and veteran politician Aftab Sherpao, Atif Khan’s niece’s wedding brought together several prominent figures from the country’s political and public life,” he wrote.
The episode has once again highlighted the gap between the expectations of an intensely polarised political constituency and the conduct of its leaders outside the political arena.
For PTI supporters who have made resistance to the establishment a central part of their political identity, even a seemingly routine exchange of greetings with Gen Bajwa can appear difficult to reconcile with the party’s narrative.
For the politicians involved, however, a wedding may simply remain a family occasion where guests from different political camps happen to cross paths.
But in today’s deeply polarised political environment, even a wedding photograph can become a political statement — and sometimes a test of political loyalty.
