PTI built its politics on outrage. Outrage at the so-called corrupt elite, at the judiciary, at the media, at anyone who dared question Imran Khan. For a while, that strategy worked. It made noise, grabbed headlines, flooded social media, and rattled institutions. But post-truth politics has a shelf life. Once the slogans wear thin and the facts begin to speak, the entire structure begins to crack. That’s the moment PTI is in now, slogans failing, facts piling up.
On 13 July, Punjab’s Information Minister Azma Bukhari laid out what was probably the most direct official dismantling of PTI’s victimhood narrative. She didn’t rely on grandstanding or vague claims. She brought evidence, cuttings from national newspapers, records of interviews, statements posted from Imran Khan’s social media accounts, logs of jail visits. Her point was simple: the victimhood narrative doesn’t hold up
Since his imprisonment, Imran Khan’s official X handle has posted 413 times. His messages have consistently appeared in the headlines of major newspapers. In less than a year, 45 of his statements have made front pages headlines, on everything from the 2024 general elections to the budget to India-Pakistan tensions. He has also given at least ten interviews to major international media outlets like Fox News, Reuters, and ITV. This is not the media silence of a political prisoner-it is the megaphone of someone fully engaged with public discourse.
When a party uses false persecution narratives to shield itself from the law, it weakens the very concept of justice.
Inside jail, Khan enjoys facilities unheard of for most prisoners. A seven-cell complex, an exercise corridor, an indoor cycle, TV, newspapers, books, and constant access to his legal and political team. In just the past three months, 66 people have met him in jail-family members, lawyers, party leaders. So much for isolation. It’s the kind of detail that makes it hard to keep up the myth of a man completely cut off from the world.
This isn’t the first time PTI has twisted facts into drama. Back in 2023, every time police made a legal arrest, PTI called it an abduction. They didn’t challenge the cases on facts; they attacked the optics, spun a persecution story, and pumped it across social media with coordinated outrage. It’s a tactic, frame lawful accountability as fascism, bully institutions into paralysis, and cry victim when the law does what it’s supposed to do.
The Toshakhana case and the £190 million settlement scandal are examples of this duplicity. Both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi benefited directly from these shady deals. When convictions came, they appealed. In some cases, verdicts were overturned or suspended. That’s due process. But PTI didn’t focus on legal grounds, they focused on whipping up emotion, accusing the judiciary of bias, and calling any verdict a conspiracy.
What PTI has perfected is a culture of deflection. Don’t answer charges , change the subject. Label every legal action a crackdown, every political loss a theft, and every piece of journalism a hit job. Azma Bukhari’s press conference cut through that fog. No drama, no propaganda , just receipts. Phone logs. Statements. Interview dates. Jail visit records. All pointing to a simple truth: the man PTI claims is silenced has never stopped speaking.
The deeper cost of all this is to Pakistan’s institutions. When a party uses false persecution narratives to shield itself from the law, it weakens the very concept of justice. It turns accountability into theatre and truth into a casualty of political strategy. What Azma Bukhari did was not something new. She did not uncover a secret. She showed what was already public.
PTI tried to build an empire on slogans, slander, and social media storms. It worked for a while. But post-truth politics, no matter how loud, can’t mask failure forever. Today, the party is more of a protest movement than a political alternative, shouting at the system it never learned to run.
The writer is a freelance columnist.