[DAWN] IT may be too early to write off the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is
Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) after the crushing blow dealt by the judicial commission report. Yet the prognosis is not promising. Despite the humiliation there is no sign of Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight...
coming out of his delusional self. He says he accepts the verdict, but not really.
He laments that the commission is "leaving the verdict half-finished." What he refuses to accept is that the commission has conclusively rejected his basic plea of systematic rigging in the 2013 elections. One can't stop being amazed at his stubbornness, which may prove his biggest undoing.
The deep fissures and demoralisation within the party in the aftermath of the report was quite predictable. For the past one year, the PTI's politics have been driven by the single-point agenda of forcing mid-term polls. And with that hope shattered, it needs a fresh approach to stay politically relevant and maintain unity in the ranks. This should not be hard for a party with such a strong and popular mass base. But can its leadership move out of its one-dimensional outlook?