Now it’s questioning the ‘jail bharo tehreek’ that triggers a torrent of online abuse where PTI’s (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) judge-and-jury social media trolls dub you lifafa journalist, traitor, and all that all over again.

But when the party leadership itself is short on details about its latest smart idea, how are ordinary citizens expected to make sense of it; especially when a no from IMF (International Monetary Fund) in the next couple of days could seal their fate and no manner of political agitation, no matter how non-violent or sincere, would save the country from certain default?

So, while we wait to be enlightened about how a majority of the country would get itself thrown into already overcrowded and filthy jails up and down the country, or how that would force a snap election where all other tactics have failed, we are beginning to get the sense that the party’s big guns are expecting the lower cadre, which forms its legions on the streets whenever the kaptaan makes an appearance, to line up and get arrested – at least in the first round.

But the shopkeeper down the street, who’s made it his life’s mission to echo everything that the party says, is in no mood to court arrest. Not the least because that would leave nobody to run the shop, or the house, while he does his bit for “haqeeqi azadi”. Nor is the banker friend who moonlights as a twitter hyper-activist, painstakingly picking out all the “ghaddars” out there and taking them to the cleaners.

He’d not only lose a very well-paying job while much of the country struggles with hyperinflation and high unemployment, the privilege to police social media would also go up in thin air. Government servants obsessed with Naya Pakistan, and convinced that PTI can deliver it, share similar concerns. Drawing room sermons are one thing, as sarkari servants serve tea and subsidized biscuits, but things like braving unappetising daal-roti in jail and losing the big official residence are sacrifices for others to make.

Put these questions to PTI’s leaders and they tell you that they have “a great plan”, which they will not discuss with the press right now – for strategic purposes, of course. But I had the opportunity to ask Imran Khan himself a more pointed question as he hosted foreign correspondents once again at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore on Tuesday.

What about PTI’s “red line”?

The party has long billed the chairman’s arrest as the red line that the government will cross at its own peril; implying, most likely, that all bets would then be off and they would be forced to unleash their street power on the state itself. So, does the ‘jail bharo tehreek’ change all that?

He didn’t say so in as many words. Just that there are a few more days to go before he can walk properly again – or the crack in the bone would reappear and the leg would have to be put in a cast for three more months – which is when he plans to go to the people again. He didn’t specify whether that meant the people he’d gather on the streets or the people he plans to push into voluntary arrests.

Maybe he didn’t want to spill the beans just yet, or maybe the thought of leading the arrests never crossed his mind. Either way, journalists in regular touch with the common folk know for sure that even the party’s most determined supporters.

For example, when it is pretty clear that PTI will sweep the polls whenever they are held, then why follow failed policies like resigning from the national assembly and dissolving two provincial assemblies with another gamble that is sure to put party workers in a lot of trouble and not at all sure to deliver any results, definitely not an immediate election? Especially when constantly delaying the elections means fiddling with the constitution, which also means the sitting government is sure to run afoul of the law? Besides, what if the government is secretly salivating at the prospect of roughing up PTI’s diehard supporters as they leave all else aside for life behind bars?

Why not concentrate on the legal process as they wait for the elections, which will throw win after win in their laps, instead of causing unnecessary political uncertainty which only feeds into the economic crisis that affects all Pakistanis alike, a lot of whom favour PTI?

“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment,” said 5th century BC Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. So far PTI has responded very unintelligently to the government’s equally, if not more, unintelligent policies to blunt its appeal in the public.

And this tug of war has made the country’s precarious economic position much worse; to the point that ordinary people who suffer endlessly because of it are beginning to wonder if unflinching loyalty to their parties is worth the effort. That includes PTI, which makes tall promises and gives a lot of hope, then goes back on them and expects the same unwavering support every time.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023