What makes PTI?

 Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) is the most popular political party in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  The credit for all this goes to the charismatic leadership of Cricketer turned politician Mr. Imran Khan whose charismatic personality has been inspiring the youth since his early days in cricket. Mr. Khan was also successful to establish one of the first welfare cancer hospitals in Pakistan with donations.

The PTI had a simple and pragmatic political agenda of reforming institutions, eradicating corruption and providing justice to the people—all these combined into a single political slogan of change. Since 2013 elections and onward the party was not only successful to form government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but remained a dominant voice on the national political landscape.

For the last three years the party has been struggling with diverse issues. The party government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has failed to bring any significant change to governance in the province. On national level, the party is presenting itself as a solo opposition to the PML N federal government despite the fact that party has very limited number of MNAs and Senators. This has probably forced the party to rely on street politics, dharnas and media outlets.

Over the time, the party suffered from the same problems which other political parties in Pakistan are suffering from. In fact the party received harsh criticism for its highly ambitious claims and its realpolitik. Major failures of the party include lack of democratic culture, failure to deliver on good governance and setting up a good model of political culture in the country.

Why is PTI still one of the most popular political parties in Pakistan? This is partly due to the fact that the party has a very active presence on media and huge resources and new technologies and strategies to reach out to the people and partly because of the youth who hope to expect revolutionary changes from the party. It may be noted that the party did not snatch vote bank from other political parties. The party politicized youth and the so-called “silent majority” or the people disillusioned by other political parties.

The rotten political culture with feudal, family, territorial, ideological and religious strands has always given an excuse to the military to intervene. The masses who have remained indoctrinated by military governments and religious leaders through education system, mass media and all other popular propaganda outlet are mostly apolitical and are fed up with the conventional politics. Such people have been termed as “silent majority” or the people who do not vote or take part in active politics. As the trend may suggest such people either side with the military or they curse the politics. In the case of PTI such people mostly support the PTI.

There are so many other things which need to be discussed like the many turncoats that joined PTI or military support for PTI. But most important thing to discuss is that all other political parties are still the same with no hope of change. Unless and until other parties change, expand and reach out to the people PTI will remain a popular voice.