Summary Imran Khan is only prominent face in PTI.
(WEB DESK) - Ostensibly, the foremost objective behind resurrection of PTI’s infamous ‘Go Nawaz Go’ drive seems provision of buttress to country’s top court and the joint investigation team (JIT) probing Sharif’s offshore assets. PTI’s top brass thinks that PML-N has kicked off a malicious campaign to make legal and constitutional value of JIT controversial and to hamper the ongoing investigation into the Panamagate. In order to disperse the fetid atmosphere, PTI is moving to public so that judiciary can award verdict candidly and unbiasedly.
Second objective is to exert pressure on PML-N and to keep it on back foot through vigorous public contact campaign. Third objective is to make PML-N’s image in public dubious by levelling allegations of unbridled corruption.
Though, Imran Khan’s strategy of keeping arch rivals under incessant pressure through rallies and sit-ins looks triumphant at first glance but the aforementioned activities do not fall in category of systematised public contact campaign. A very thin line splits protesting rallies from public drive. In earlier, opposition party exerts pressure on government through large rallies while the prime role in such rallies is played by party’s workers. In later, opposition parties step in to cash the public exasperation while the drive usually spreads across country; Arab spring is a prominent example of this phenomenon. Regimes usually lack potential to suppress these movements as Tehreek Nizam-e-Mustafa brought Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s tenure to premature end in 1977.
Against this backdrop, Imran Khan may start protesting rallies across country but chances of a pure public drive are feeble. Unlike past, PML-N does not look vulnerable to such threats as it enjoys heavy majority in parliament whereas other political giants are not in favour of any such activity which can possibly derail the flourishing democracy.
Either willingly or unwillingly, PTI has linked its political future with Panamagate and party’s plotters anticipate another victory for PML-N in the upcoming polls if a clean chit is granted to Sharif family in Panama Leaks Case.
(Article written by Head of Political Affairs Dunya News Salman Ghani, translated by Zohaib Hassan)
