Even before its formal launch, PTI’s latest protest movement has run into internal controversy. It is a rather inauspicious start to an effort that aims to release Imran Khan from jail.
This is vintage PTI. Plagued by infighting, riven by power plays, and consumed by jealousies, Khan’s party today paints a picture of a disparate grouping of individuals unable to make good decisions, unwilling to form a coherent strategy and unsuited to generate mass mobilization for a movement. The events of the last few days have reinforced these multiple failures.
First Aleema Khan said Khan had ordered a protest movement to start and climax on August 5. Then Ali Amin Gandapur said the protest would culminate in ninety days. Then Aliya Hamza, chief organizer for Punjab, said in so many words she had no idea what Gandapur meant. Then Sheikh Waqas Akram, the party’s information secretary, severely reprimanded Aliya Hamza in a leaked audio message for leaking his private message to the media. And all this when the protests are still an academic discussion.
The party’s natural state of confusion is yet again on full display. Three points stand out.
First, when Khan said, as per his sister, that the movement should climax on August 5, does this mean it will be at its most intense on that date? If this be so, then PTI has exactly twenty-one days from today to start the protest, generate momentum and reach a crescendo on August 5. Is that asking for too much?
Second, does Gandapur’s 90-day deadline mean that the protest movement will carry on not till August 5 but till October 13? If this be so, and as per his declaration, if Khan is not released till this date, then the party will exit the political system by dissolving the KP assembly?
Third, if Aliya Hamza as the chief organizer of Punjab is publicly saying she has no idea of the 90-day deadline, and that she is surprised the party’s secretary general said she was ‘busy’ and that is why she could not be present at the Sunday press conference, and that the party’s information secretary is accusing her of leaking his messages to the media – if all this is indeed true (which it appears to be as per their own accusations), then the party’s KP and Punjab leadership are completely at odds with each other.
All agree that if this protest is to make an impact, supporters from Punjab have to make a big showing. This is precisely why the main leadership of the party travelled to Lahore with much fanfare. But the public spat between Aliya Hamza and the KP leadership tells a completely different story.
And yet, this is not the biggest problem facing the party.
These internal spats are operational fissures that may resolve themselves once Khan is released from jail. Or even if these wounds don’t heal, the damage they inflict on the fabric of the party may be minimized once the major decision-making is concentrated in one person. The larger and more acute issue is the lack of direction for the party. In a rapidly changing political landscape, the PTI is like a deer in the headlights: frozen into inaction.
Party insiders agree that Khan is at a huge disadvantage. Isolated in jail, he does not have regular access to information and feedback that is essential for prudent and practical decision-making. This disadvantage is compounded further by the restricted access to him. He then becomes dependent on the information given to him by the people who are allowed to meet him. Since he is the only person who can actually make decisions, such decisions are turning out to be not very good ones.
The result is a strategy that is unclear, inconsistent and increasingly de-linked to the changing realities of today’s Pakistan.
One such dose of harsh reality is the latest Gallup survey that shows widespread dissatisfaction in KP about the PTI government’s governance. Among the many findings – including criticism about lack of education, healthcare and jobs in the province – is the sentiment that the PTI is spending too much time in protests and too little in resolving the problems of the people of KP. This should worry the party.
What should also worry the party is the lack of worry inside the Red Zone. There was a time when PTI’s protest announcements would shake up the government machinery and force it to mobilise in a massive way. Not so anymore. Except for a few mocking statements from a cabinet member or two, the rest is water off a duck’s back. Both inside the parliament and outside on the streets, PTI’s capacity to exert pressure on the government and the establishment is dissipating by the day.
If this latest protest movement – billed as the ultimate one – also fizzles out like the previous ones, Khan’s party will be in severe danger of being sidelined even further from the mainstream. For a party that is still hugely popular, nothing could be more unfortunate.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is a senior journalist & political commentator. His X handle is @fahdhusain