There is no sense or sanity in denying surging support for Imran Khan

February 23, 2024

ISLAMABAD – THERE is no denying that a powerful wave of popular support is surging behind Imran Khan today. There is no sense, and no sanity, in denying this.

All predictions that the sun will soon set on Khan once he is removed from power are proving wrong. Just as things begin to look bad for him, something comes along to recharge his strength.

That something is always the same: an appeal to the people. Following the vote of no-confidence in April 2022, for example, Khan announced a long march to Islamabad in May. That long march fai­led to garner sufficient numbers to accomplish anything special. Khan called it off abruptly after reaching Islamabad and went off to Banigala instead.

There was a sense that the politics of agitation that had served him so well during the period of his rise after the so-called tsunami march in August 2014 was no longer going to work, because he no longer had the support of the establishment that was a crucial ingredient in the success of the earlier wave of agitation politics. Instead, Khan fell back on rallies, large numbers of them, and attracted large crowds whom he showered with fiery rhetoric of betrayal and pride.

But then came the by-elections on 20 seats that the PTI had themselves resigned from, and Khan won 15 of them. That jolt was the first sign that something big was stirring beneath the surface. Some tried to play this down. The victory was due to a stunt, they said, when Khan fielded himself as the candidate on all seats.

Others said he had only won back seats that were his own to start off with. Yet others said anti-incumbent sentiment played a role, because the PDM government of Shehbaz Sharif had just completed a painful series of adjustments in fuel