PTI staging comeback for polling day ‘surprise’ despite hurdles

ISLAMABAD: With general elections less than six weeks away, the political situation is becoming really fluid as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) appears to be staging a comeback in the election ring despite the administrative muscle being used to suppress it.

Amid reports of not being allowed to stage public meetings and political rallies, the PTI is getting some major relief from the courts. This has served as a booster for the party, which has been facing serious legal and criminal actions against its top leaders and workers following the May 9 attacks.

On the other end, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), which is being seen by many as the ‘King’s Party’, seems to be in sleep mode — doing far less than what it was expected to do to outsmart the under-pressure PTI in Punjab. Despite the alleged administrative support available to it, the PMLN has yet to start its election campaign to mobilize people.

While the PMLN is waiting for a ‘managed miracle’ to bring it to power, the PTI leadership and its supporters have received great encouragement from some recent court decisions. The Supreme Court’s verdict on the cipher case and the Peshawar High Court’s decision against the ECP’s order of withdrawing the PTI’s election symbol of the ‘bat’ have renewed enthusiasm among PTI leaders and workers.

On Thursday, the Islamabad High Court granted a stay order in the cipher trial till January 11 on Imran Khan’s petition against in-camera proceedings of the trial court. After the Supreme Court’s relief in the cipher case, PTI leaders were worried that Imran Khan could be convicted any time in the cipher case by the trial court. Now, following the IHC stay order, the PTI has succeeded in delaying the trial.

The PTI legal team is also keenly pursuing legal options to get Imran Khan’s conviction in the Toshakhana case reversed from the apex court, which took up the matter on Wednesday but because of the unavailability of judges the case will now be heard after judges return from vacations.

If the Supreme Court undoes Imran Khan’s conviction in the Toshakhana case, the founder-chairman of PTI will become eligible to contest the general elections.

PTI leaders claim to have the support of a vast majority among the public and if the ballot paper has the PTI election symbol on election day, the party’s voters will give a surprise.

And in case Imran Khan is allowed to contest the elections, the chances of an electoral surprise by the PTI will increase manifold.

Following the post-May 9 crackdown on the party, it was generally speculated that it would be difficult for the PTI to find candidates to contest in the general elections.

However, PTI candidates have outnumbered all other parties in filing their nomination papers. In fact, the number of PTI candidates who have filed nomination papers for national and provincial assemblies for the Feb 8, 2024 elections is higher than the number of PTI candidates in the 2018 elections.