Imran Khan's difficulties in quelling the 'revolt' by his angry workers, is a classic case of being hoist by his own petard. Since forming the PTI more than two decades ago, Imran Khan seldom let go of any opportunity to castigate our traditional politicians for being corrupt, opportunists, and open to many things illegal for their own benefit. His 'revolutionary' rhetoric that his party would not only reject such a political culture but change and overthrow it has now come back with a vengeance to haunt him. The months-long sit-in he mounted in 2014 against the PML-N government gave his committed workers a taste of street power. That lesson has now rebounded against him. One can sympathise with his dilemma. The PTI fought the 2013 elections with this 'purist' attitude. Before the polls, they were carried away by their own rhetoric, firmly convinced they would win the elections. When the results fell far below these exaggerated expectations, albeit a better showing than their constituency-level support, electable candidates and the party machine to deliver the votes on polling day seemed to indicate, the narrative switched to alleged rigging. The sit-in followed, the rigging allegations were examined and rejected by none other than the present caretaker Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk who was the Chief Justice of Pakistan then, and the PTI retreated to lick its wounds. The crisis the ruling PML-N suffered in the aftermath of the Panama Papers resurrected the hopes of the PTI. This time the party decided to go the traditional political route of seeking electables, even those defecting from other parties despite unsavoury track records and characters. Naturally, there being only a finite number of seats up for grabs in the elections, committed workers had to be sacrificed in favour of the new entrants. All this was justified in the PTI leadership's mind as necessary given the expedient needs of winning a sufficient number of seats to form a government. However, the PTI leadership seems to have underestimated the depth of the training received over many years from Imran Khan's narrative. This contradiction has produced the present impasse. If Imran Khan is able to satisfy the demands of the angry workers, the party could once again find itself unable to reach the critical number of seats. If he cannot, the prospect of alienated workers sitting out the campaign could also damage the party's prospects. Truly, Imran Khan is caught on the horns of a self-inflicted dilemma.
Imran Khan's difficulties in quelling the 'revolt' by his angry workers, is a classic case of being hoist by his own petard. Since forming the PTI more than two decades ago, Imran Khan seldom let go of any opportunity to castigate our traditional politicians for being corrupt, opportunists, and open to many things illegal for their own benefit. His 'revolutionary' rhetoric that his party would not only reject such a political culture but change and overthrow it has now come back with a vengeance to haunt him. The months-long sit-in he mounted in 2014 against the PML-N government gave his committed workers a taste of street power. That lesson has now rebounded against him. One can sympathise with his dilemma. The PTI fought the 2013 elections with this 'purist' attitude. Before the polls, they were carried away by their own rhetoric, firmly convinced they would win the elections. When the results fell far below these exaggerated expectations, albeit a better showing than their constituency-level support, electable candidates and the party machine to deliver the votes on polling day seemed to indicate, the narrative switched to alleged rigging. The sit-in followed, the rigging allegations were examined and rejected by none other than the present caretaker Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk who was the Chief Justice of Pakistan then, and the PTI retreated to lick its wounds. The crisis the ruling PML-N suffered in the aftermath of the Panama Papers resurrected the hopes of the PTI. This time the party decided to go the traditional political route of seeking electables, even those defecting from other parties despite unsavoury track records and characters. Naturally, there being only a finite number of seats up for grabs in the elections, committed workers had to be sacrificed in favour of the new entrants. All this was justified in the PTI leadership's mind as necessary given the expedient needs of winning a sufficient number of seats to form a government. However, the PTI leadership seems to have underestimated the depth of the training received over many years from Imran Khan's narrative. This contradiction has produced the present impasse. If Imran Khan is able to satisfy the demands of the angry workers, the party could once again find itself unable to reach the critical number of seats. If he cannot, the prospect of alienated workers sitting out the campaign could also damage the party's prospects. Truly, Imran Khan is caught on the horns of a self-inflicted dilemma.