That the PTI protesters tried to hold a rally in D-Chowk in Islamabad on Friday may have been an attempt to revive memories of the past: back in 2014, it was the sit-in at D-Chowk which merited wide media coverage and the sort of projection of party chief Imran Khan that he could not have paid for. That it was ruthlessly suppressed was also no surprise, because that has been the policy of the government for previous protests. It is supposed to be part of the quest for political stability that the government has launched, that protests are to be discouraged.
Because of the timing, the PTI has managed to revive memories of how the sit-in persuaded the Chinese President to cancel a scheduled visit. With an SCO Summit to start less than a fortnight off, on September 16, the idea of a PTI sit-in at D-Chowk was bound to make the government uncomfortable. That discomfort would have  been increased by KP Information Adviser Saif Ali Said saying that the PTI would invite the Indian Foreign Minister to address the rally during his visit.Quite apart from the chances of a foreign dignitary addressing even a government party’s event, the attitude shown, the optics of getting India to intervene in Pakistan’s politics is not likely to go down well with the establishment. The PTI should realise that its cause, the release of its chief, Imran Khan, is a valid one, but it is purely a domestic political one, and to involve any foreign dignitary or dignitaries make for very bad optics. The twist of the knife in the wound is that Mr Saif did not choose any of the other SCO members to beat the government on the head with, but India, which has little love lost for Pakistan. Indian commentators had been jubilant over the May 9 attacks  on installations, saying that the PTI had done something India had not been able to do, which was to drive a wedge between the Pakistani people and the Army.
The PTI needs to do something it has not so far been good at: Soul-searching. It is pulling the tricks out of the old playbook, not realising that the very game being played is different. Its game plan against Mian Nawaz Sharif was based on having powerful friends in high places. Now it does not have those friends.
