The PTI Islamabad may suffer as a result of party leaders’ desperate flight during a security crackdown. However, experts say the administration is also confronted with challenges.
Pakistan’s Islamabad
– Bushra Bibi, Khan’s wife, advised the hundreds of followers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who had come to Islamabad on Monday night to support their imprisoned leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, to remain till his release was guaranteed.
But within a day, the crowd was dispersed by security forces’ late-night operation on Tuesday, which reportedly claimed the lives of both PTI demonstrators and police officers.
The operation, which started shortly before midnight, was carried out in central Islamabad during a power outage fewer than 3 kilometers (2 miles) from D-Chowk, the public plaza that delineates the Red Zone of the capital, which is home to numerous government buildings.
As the operation began and security personnel deployed tear gas to disperse the gathering, Bushra Bibi and Ali Amin Gandapur, the PTI chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, withdrew to the northwest region under the cover of darkness. PTI announced in a statement that it was canceling the protest “for the time being” on Wednesday morning.
In order to exert pressure on the government on three demands—recovering what the party refers to as its “stolen mandate” from the February elections, releasing political prisoners like Khan, and reversing a constitutional amendment that gave the government authority over judicial appointments—the PTI convoys had moved from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into Islamabad, defying court orders that prohibited their entry into the city.
According to observers
, the PTI’s leadership was under pressure by the time the demonstrators departed. The party’s requests had not been fulfilled, and it was unclear how the organization would reorganize.
Political analyst Zaigham Khan told Al Jazeera, “This protest was framed as their ‘final call,’ but for it to collapse like this is a major blow to their political strategy.”
There have been different accounts regarding casualties from the police and paramilitary ranger operation.
While the government denied firing live bullets and maintained that no demonstrators were killed, the PTI claimed that eight of its supporters had been murdered. According to officials, a police policeman lost his life in altercations with party members on Monday, while three rangers were murdered in a hit-and-run incident involving a PTI convoy.
With earlier rallies, including one in October, ending early, this was the PTI’s fourth protest in four months.
At a news conference on Wednesday afternoon in Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gandapur denounced the government’s attack on PTI activists and said the party would keep pressing its demands.
Since a legislative vote of no confidence overthrew Imran Khan’s administration in April 2022, the PTI has been in protest mode.
Despite its candidates winning the most seats in the February elections, the party said its mandate had been stolen and was unable to form a government.
Since August 2023, Imran Khan has been incarcerated on a number of crimes, including treason and corruption. Before obtaining bail in October, Bushra Bibi was also detained for nine months on corruption-related accusations.
Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister, accused Bushra Bibi of planning the turmoil in Islamabad. “She bears full responsibility for the deaths and financial harm of the last few days,” Naqvi stated on Tuesday.
Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, the leader of the PTI, stated that the party was concentrating on handling casualties and declined to comment on the party’s future plans.
However, Benazir Shah, a political analyst based in Lahore, stated that the PTI does not currently appear to be planning to hold another significant demonstration in support of Imran Khan’s release.
“PTI will have to adjust its approach going forward. Forming partnerships with other political parties and well-known movements that have similar complaints against the government is one possible course of action. Shah told Al Jazeera that a coordinated demonstration centered on social or human rights concerns might contribute to the creation of national momentum.
Rana Ihsaan Afzal, a spokesman for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied claims of employing excessive force and charged that PTI members were carrying firearms.
“We have police officers who have been shot, which shows that the demonstrators had weapons,” Afzal stated. He continued by saying that despite the government’s repeated offers of alternate protest locations, the PTI disregarded the rulings of the Islamabad High Court by staging a rally in the capital.
“This protest was not nonviolent. He claimed that they sought violence and employed it as a strategy to win people over.
In Islamabad, Pakistan, November 26, 2024, a fan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, carries a cell phone in the midst of tear gas smoke while attending an anti-government demonstration calling for Khan’s release. Akhtar Soomro/REUTERS.
However, experts argued that the PTI’s most recent protest failure highlights its lack of leadership above all else.
When put to the test on the ground, the party’s dependence on social media hype failed, according to analyst Talat Hussain. “PTI discovered last night that politics is more complex than internet narratives,” he told Al Jazeera.
Ahmed Ijaz, an Islamabad-based political watcher, questioned Bushra Bibi’s sudden departure.
He claimed that the party’s capacity to plan its future course of action will be harmed by the way they deserted supporters at D-Chowk.
However, political analysts stated that the government’s reputation has also been tarnished by this week’s events.
Shah stated that the government’s use of force was probably meant to serve as a model to discourage similar protests in the future. “But this harsh strategy could backfire in the days ahead and reveals the current government’s inability to have a conversation or defuse tense situations.”
The analyst from Islamabad, Zaigham Khan, was not shocked by the government’s reaction.
Citing claims of election tampering in February that have dogged Sharif’s government for the previous nine months, he declared, “This is the most unpopular government.” “Therefore, they couldn’t afford it and pursued them with such vigor if any attempt was perceived as disturbing the apple cart.”