“Nawaz Sharif, I say loud and clear from this container that this sit-in will never halt until justice is served.” Vociferous and fiery Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), reiterated his stance for the 111th time on the 111th day of the protest in Islamabad to a small crowd that had been slowly shrinking, a group that was not willing to commit for an over night stay. Instead, the elite protestors preferred to sit on chairs for a few hours, clap their hands to the beat of the music, enjoy a free cup of tea with friends, listen to the short speech of the chairman and then pack their bags to get a comfortable night’s sleep in their homes. Who can blame them? They were not alone in having fun; their party leader was also following the same schedule. Imran would show up late in the afternoon on top of the container, appear for an hour-long interview on television and then climb up to the top where other members of his party, who also had just settled in, waited for him. From there, he would address the tiny gathering of a few hundred people, reinforcing the same revolutionary agenda. Then, he would step down in a rush, exhausted after a long hard day of work, racing to take his land cruiser back to his palace in Bani Gala!
With that size of the protest he knew he could not even force the mayor of Nankana Sahib — a small district 50 miles from Faisalabad — to step down, let alone the Prime Minster (PM) of Pakistan. Moving from plan A to B and then marching from B to C to D, E and possibly F, he realised that something big had to be done to snatch victory from a losing battle. However, he did not know what that would be. He did not have many alternatives left. Let me put it this way: the alternatives that he had at the beginning of the movement, he had burnt them all.
After the defection of Javed Hashmi, the failed attack on government institutions and the departure of Maulana Tahirul Qadri from the sit-in, the PTI looked angry and agitated but had grown weaker in its ability to achieve political leverage. On the other hand, through a successful show of strength in parliament, Mian Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N established their grip on power. Yes, there was a lot of noise on social media and, yes, the path towards violence through strikes and agitation could seem like small steps towards victory. However, everyone knew the former cricketer sooner or later was going to succumb to the public pressure building against him. The real question was how.
When he started his journey in mid-August, the administration was genuinely scared, requesting Khan to come to the negotiating table and pleading with him to cancel his plans. Was the establishment behind the protests? Mian Nawaz Sharif was not sure which was why he sought reconciliation with the PTI at every cost and he committed to agree upon all the demands except his resignation. While addressing the nation, he even offered to constitute a judicial commission to investigate the matter of election rigging. However, Imran did not agree. He wanted Mian Nawaz Sharif out. “No commission can conduct an independent investigation if the prime minister stays in power,” he said on multiple occasions.
One hundred days later, with the shrinking size of the protest and with more people standing on the stage than sitting in front of it, the tide had turned. The administration, even after Imran has formally withdrawn his condition for the resignation of the PM, had left the negotiation table and did not intend to return until Imran stopped his protest.
Politics, in my opinion, is not about fair play or being right or wrong. It is about keeping a tight control on the narrative. After the elections, the narrative of electoral rigging stuck with the people, especially with the young urban middle class. Some of them had gone out to vote for the first time and had even convinced their older, disenchanted parents and relatives to perform their national duty. Through an impressive media campaign, Imran led his young supporters to believe that an electoral victory was just a few days away, waiting for them and that it would change Pakistan overnight. He convinced them that corruption would end in a matter of hours, the electricity crisis in a few days and terrorism in a few weeks after successful and sincere negotiations with the Taliban. It was brilliant, individually appealing to every voter, making him/her responsible for his or her destiny. This resulted in about 60 percent turnover on election day, a turnover that beat most estimates. The idea was that if the turnover stood high, the PTI would bag all the votes. However, despite a high turnover, victory stood far from the party, disappointing its supporters. I think that was one of the reasons for the whole exercise of the sit-ins, freedom march and the revolutionary movement.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) provided a reason to the PTI to end its long march. It would have ended after the Peshawar school massacre nonetheless but Imran took the initiative and called it off. Moving forward, he has agreed to the same judicial commission that Mian Nawaz Sharif had offered to him before the protest and his party has resumed its legislative responsibilities as well. However, I am sure he must not be very happy with the reception from Khawaja Asif. What was the point of going through all that? I am sure the party’s supporters will find a way to justify his actions as they always do. My concern is only this: will Imran accept the findings of the commission if it goes against the PTI? Is the new Chief Justice (CJ) going to be ridiculed like Iftikhar Chaudhry was? Will the PTI openly call him names too? Is the CJ ready for harassment through the social media?
The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at [email protected]