PTI chief Imran Khan has apparently found that nothing has harmed him or his party as much as the crackdown following the May 9 reaction to his arrest. Though he was soon enlarged on bail, not only thousands of his party’s workers arrested, but he was deserted by a vast number of party leaders, including those he thought of as stalwarts, including Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and his successor as KP CM Mehmood Khan, Asad Umar and Fawad Chauudhary. The campaign for immediate elections seems to have been replaced by one pressing for Mr Khan to be kept out of jail, but it seems that his legal troubles are so strong that theory will lead to his arrest, trial and then disqualification. The information that ’introvertible evidence’ has been found of his having planned and ordered attacks on military targets after his arrest indicates that he will be tried by a military court, with all the disadvantages that entails
Perhaps the most dangerous problem he faces is the latest ordinance amending the NAB law, which not only allows a 30-day remand period, but also allows the evidence of approvers. It has been claimed that Mr Khan’s Principal Secretary to PM Azam Khan has agreed to bear witness to all that he is privy to, while Malik Riaz is willing to turn approver in the Al-Qadir University land case, which was the case in which Mr Khan was arrested on that fateful May 9.
Apart from Mr Khan’s legal travails, there is his political future. Though he may not be as popular aS he thinks he is, Mr Khan still commands wide support. The problem will be translating it into votes at the hustings when elections take place. Apart from the loss of support in the electorate because of the May 9 attacks, potential candidates will hang back for fear of being associated with the PTI and thus offending the establishment.This is especially true of those who thought that PTI tickets would win them the kind of support that is alleged the PTI received in the 2018 polls. Though Mr Khan is a very fit septuagenarian, a septuagenarian he is nonetheless, and he may not really be all that willing to wait out the five years following the coming election, as he would be 75 at the time of a 2028 election.More to the point, are the remnants of his party willing to wait.
