The fall of the PTI

One of the reasons for Imran Khan’s decline is his failure to organize, strengthen and empower the PTI at the grassroots level. After the 2013 elections, his entire focus turned towards highly undemocratic ‘dharna’ politics. He felt that his personality and charisma was enough for the long-term survival and victory of the PTI – a party which won only one seat in the National Assembly between 1996 and 2013. It was the failure of the first 17 years that led Khan to focus on street agitation and a confrontational style of politics to gain quick success. The party’s evolution did not happen organically from that point onwards, and electables were inducted in the party to ensure its quick success; it also led him to appoint wrong people for certain key positions.

Imran Khan is again repeating the same mistake; instead of focusing on the party manifesto, his political reinvention and the reorganization of his party at the grassroots level, he has gone back to politics of street agitation with continuous criticism of state institutions and a dirty war of words and insults against opponents on social media platforms. The PTI’s ‘long march’ to Islamabad is not a genuine revolution, and it doesn’t have any organic base. It is simply a tactic by Imran Khan to show his dissatisfaction for being ousted from power unceremoniously.

Sufghan Sarwar Khan

Dubai, UAE