ver since Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has been detained in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, top party leaders have been leaving the party. The party appears utterly disorganised. However, despite the obvious difficulties, the PTI may have a decent plan lined up for the elections, which are now due early next year.

Scepticism persisted in some circles about the upcoming elections and PTI’s participation in it. On Thursday, the ECP informed the Supreme Court that elections would be held on February 11. This and the recent statement of caretaker prime minister and the meeting between Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja should convince people that elections will indeed be held in the first quarter of 2024, and that the PTI will take part in the exercise.

PM Kakar told media during his visit to Lahore, “The caretaker government is not in a position to ban the PTI since the Election Commission has not done so. How can we [ban the PTI]?” He said that PTI candidates would be allowed to participate in the elections and run their election campaigns.

The ECP chief visited Lahore to meet the Punjab chief minister to discuss preparations for the elections. Punjab Information Minister Amir Mir tells The News on Sunday, “The CEC did not mention the date but told the CM that elections would be held by the end of January 2024. The CM shared his thoughts on a peaceful and fair election process in the Punjab. There will be more than 50,000 polling stations in the Punjab of which 7,000 have been declared ‘sensitive’.”

Hearing of several cases against PTI chairman, including the Al-Qadir Trust case, the Tausha Khana case and the foreign funding case, has been overshadowed by the coverage of the Cipher case and the May 9 violence cases. Many politicians including Ata Tarar of the PML-N, believe that Khan will remain in jail. They expect him to be convicted in some of these cases.

The PTI also faces serious organisational problems. Many of its top leaders have left the party. Vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and president Chaudhry Parvez Elahi have not yielded to the pressure but remain imprisoned despite grant of bail in several cases.

As if that weren’t enough, PTI supporters are confused about the electoral campaign. They wonder how potential candidates will apply for party tickets. Who will issue these tickets? Who will run their campaign?

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Zulfi Bukhari, a PTI stalwart, spoke to The News on Sunday about this from an undisclosed location. He said the PTI leaders, either in the country or abroad, were working on the campaign arrangements. “We are ready to contest elections. However, what is going on currently amounts to pre-poll rigging; the worst in history,” he says. “Despite this, the PTI is confident. We believe that whatever difficulties the party is faced with or atrocities that Imran Khan and other party leaders are facing, are working in our favour. These have proven counter-productive for those trying to harm the PTI. The masses are angry. They will vote for us in the next elections.”

“For the general elections we have multiple candidates in each constituency. We are not worried because the votes belong to the PTI; we can field any candidate and they will win easily.”

The popularity of the PTI chairman rose substantially after his removal as prime minister through a no-confidence motion in 2022. It rose further after an alleged assassination attempt during a rally in Wazirabad. The poor performance of the successor government on the economic front also lost the rival parties some support.

In the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI enjoys significant support. Its supporters are anxiously waiting for elections.

The PTI chairman had formed a committee of lawyers during his detention in Attock Jail, through which he communicated with his supporters. It appears that his lawyers and others are currently working on lists of candidates for the upcoming elections.

In an intriguing development last week, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser and former PTI minister Ali Muhammad Khan called on Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to condole the death of his mother-in-law. Political pundits described this as a big development because the JUI-F and the PTI are seen as arch-rivals in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Asked about the meeting, Zulfi Bukhari said, “The PTI leaders went to Maulana Fazlur Rehman to condole his loss. There was no political purpose.” However, he adds, that the PTI is open to negotiation with any party on the issue of immediate elections.

Former federal minister Shafqat Mehmood, another PTI big wig, says there is a need for a grand dialogue among all democratic political parties for democracy, fair elections and rule of law.

The statements by PTI leaders hint at the possibility of a dialogue between the PTI and other political parties on elections in the coming days. This may lead to the possibility of seat adjustments among some parties.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and analyst. His X handle: @BukhariMubasher