Daily Times

Six months in, the PTI leadership, despite having a strong electoral mandate, fails to exude any noticeable energy, relying solely on its founder’s star power to do the trick. On Thursday, the party cried wolf for the fourth time in the recent past when it could not follow through with a much-talked-about rally in Islamabad, adding to a series of delays.

Hours before he was supposed to lead a wave of demonstrators despite a revocation of permission by the local administration of the city, Chairman Gohar Ali Khan announced a postponement to next month, claiming to be following directions from Mr Khan. If Wednesday was all about tension gripping the government benches, which made its apprehension public by imposing Section 144, closing educational institutions and implementing extraordinary security arrangements for public installations, yesterday saw an anti-climatic development prompt chaos within the PTI ranks, giving rise to disgruntled reservations. Making rounds on social media, a leaked audio clip of a furious Aleema Khan heavily criticised the office-bearers, questioning their intention to secure her brother’s release.

The essence does lie in timing, and therefore, Mr Swati would do well to clear the air regarding a very questionable decision he claimed to have been taken by Mr Khan five minutes before the deadline. The entire game of smoke and mirrors is becoming far too familiar as an evasion technique, arousing suspicion in the millions who entrusted Mr Khan with their mandate. Political parties cannot function as a one-man show and while the past may not have taught him this, it is high time for PTI to improve its organisational structure to avoid such trysts in the future.

Even though its present high command identifies itself as an “ad-hoc” arrangement, which, perhaps due to their limited capacity or political sagaciousness, is bound to rely on their boss for every move on the chessboard, the leadership needs to be handed the baton in the true sense to lead from the front, at least until the day he is in a position to do so. The common man’s frustration is growing, and it might be a mistake for him to stand before the speeding bus instead of making the government answerable to their grievances. *