Three months of D-Chowk sit-in: enthusiasm withering with marked decrease in participants

Three months ago Sher Dil Khan came to Islamabad from Dera Ismail Khan, along with some other friends, to join the anti-government sit-in. He remains optimistic even after the passage of three months, "Yes I'm a bit exhausted," he admitted "but I'm not going to give up. I've no job and protest at the injustice of our system where the children of the rich get jobs while the poor like me don't get any opportunity."
The 22-year-old jobless graduate had never been to Islamabad before. "I will stay here as this is the directive of my leader (Imran Khan) My family has tried all political parties and it's Khan's turn now....Go Nawaz Go, Go Nawaz Go," shouted Sher Dil. But the enthusiasm has somewhat worn thin as the protests, which at first seemed on the verge of toppling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif completed its third month with little sign of political change.
The now far-smaller protest camp in Islamabad's once-pristine government district has become a sprawling, trash-strewn tent city. The once heavily guarded red zone situated in front of Prime Minister House, has now been turned into a food street for vendors where one can easily find tea, pakoras, etc. Hundreds not thousands participate in the sit-in now. The people who regularly attend the sit-in are mostly students, working-class men and women and the PTI members from the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The party's lawmakers have been given standing orders by the party's leadership to ensure participation of as many as they can. However, the majority of people who listen to Imran Khan's daily speeches are government servants, bankers and people working for multinational companies. Muhammad Zafar, who works for a bank, has been regularly attending the sit-in for the last three months. With his tie in hand, sipping a cup of tea at a tea stall, he says Imran Khan is only leader who can steer the country out of the prevailing crisis.
"I am dead sure Imran is going to win sooner or later. He's trying his level best to break the shackles of subjugation [and] it's our job to strengthen his hand in making a new Pakistan, and he will I believe as he has never lied to us," he maintained. In the evenings, when Khan waves from atop his container to address the crowd, the numbers visibly increase as supporters arrive from the twin cities after office hours. An estimate by the Business Recorder places the figure at around a thousand by evening to hear Khan's speech.
Many of course come for the entertainment. "No matter who wins at least we've had some fun in the evenings in the otherwise dead city of Islamabad," said Salman, an engineer, who works for a multinational company in the capital. Imran Khan has given a deadline to Prime Minister Sharif to initiate a probe into 2013 general elections rigging, or else his party will announce its future line of action on November 30. An anecdotal survey of those present revealed that the perception is that protests will take a new turn after November 30.