Posted on August 10, 2025
Islamabad:
A year ago, on August 5 he would have plunged twin cities in chaos. The roads would have sealed and the mounted containers, but the crowds would have roared in protest. But on August 5 of this year, the anniversary of the arrest of Imran Khan de Islamabad in 2023, the streets of Rawalpindi and Islamabad remained calm, without being bothered by the call of the opposition to a protest. Only dispersed police mobiles, prison trucks and a visible security presence taps the main intersections and, also, not to handle disturbances, but to monitor the conspicuous silence.
This marked not only a change in the public response, but also symbolized a deeper collapse within the largest and noisy political force in the country: Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI). The same day that the party hoped to rekindle the resistance of the street in the second anniversary of the imprisonment of its founding president, it became one of the darkest days for the party, since its remaining parliamentary leaders in the Senate, the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly were disqualified and dismissed in relation to the trial of the cases of May 9, May 9, May 9.
Politically and geographically, the party that once demanded unique public support and alleged institutional blessings is now limited to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where it still has power. In other places, PTI has been largely eliminated from the conventional political map.
An example of this is his failure to mobilize people for the protest of August 5, that the Supreme Court had wished to put pressure on the Government led by PMLN and the powerful interested parties for their release. As the irony would do it, Imran Khan had asked for a final call for his release last November, which had also failed.
PTI’s political decline has been anything but sudden. The party, once it was with populist slogans and the support of powerful rooms, began to lose ground after the events of May 9, 2023, when violent protests broke out after Imran Khan arrest.
For the first time in history, military facilities were attacked, triggering what would become a decisive turning point. Following, a scan repression followed, with massive arrests and leaders of the party forced to change the game, leave politics or dissociate from the party completely.
As the top -level leaders disappeared from the scene under coercion, dropout, judicial procedures or for being thrown into jail, the internal coordination of the party was shattered. However, despite repressions, party workers continued to support large quantities until recently. However, continuous disorder in the party and the absence of leadership when grassroots workers faced arrests or prosecutions began to create a gap between people and the leadership of the party.
This repeated pattern of abandonment has not gone unnoticed within the PTI support base, which once proud to be ideologically driven and deeply loyal, both on social networks and in the field. However, the absence of resistance organized in the symbolic on August 5, when Imran Khan urged the party to rise in protest, he exhibited how far PTI has fallen from his old domain position of the street.
To add insult to the injury, the disqualification of the opposition leaders of the Senate Assembly, the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly, as well as the parliamentary leader further demonstrated the decrease of PTI within the legislative houses. With the elimination of its parliamentary leadership, the party is now unable to influence the legislation, challenge government policy or even issue symbolic dissent within parliamentary limits.
This parliamentary vacuum has immediately reached the recent decision of the Supreme Court over the reserved seats, which gave a crucial advantage to the Declance alliance. The court ruled in favor of granting reserved seats, previously destined for PTI, to the parties within the ruling coalition. As a result, the PMLN emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly, while the ruling alliance now enjoys a two -thirds majority.
PTI’s failure to maintain internal cohesion and external alliances have left it without direction. Instead of having conversations with the political elite, he has repeatedly said that he only wants to hold conversations with the powerful interested. However, the response on the other side has so far been extremely cold. Once seen as cordial, the relationship of the party with the establishment is now completely fractured. If it is perceived as a product of tacit institutional support, PTI is now an example of how political isolation is seen in Pakistan.
Although the party is in power in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, it is still under pressure. Their previous attempts to organize important activities beyond KP have constantly encountered preventive state actions such as arrests, prohibitions and stop public meetings. Last September, after celebrating a demonstration in the capital, the officials responsible for enforcing the law broke into the Parliament to arrest PTI legislators for breaching a law on political demonstrations. Subsequently, the party only managed to reach the capital in November, but only to leave the party workers and without winning anything. Since then, he tried to flex the muscles and announced that the protest movement would begin shortly after EID, but that never happened.
Lack of clarity on the future course of action, the inability of the leadership of the party to elaborate a post-image political narrative, the grouping in the party and almost no control of the president of the starting party on its members has contributed to its current paralysis. Currently, with Imran Khan in jail and his appeals in Zigzaguear by the courts, the entire political strategy of the party remains focused on his personality but disconnected from political realities.
In contrast, the ruling coalition led by PMLN has capitalized PTI’s weaknesses. With the opposition effectively marginalized, the government has moved to consolidate power both legally and politically. With the 26th constitutional amendment, the Declaration Alliance changed the judicial structure and the process of appointing Judge Top of the country by nominating the president of the Supreme Court of the most important judges, instead of the highest judge, automatically assuming the position. In addition, the Court’s decision on reserved seats delivered not only numbers but also legitimacy to the alliance and rumors are preparing for another constitutional amendment.
By avoiding the main political controversies and projecting a narrative of stability and economic recovery, as well as the victory over India in recent war, the ruling alliance is now occupied by elaborating the image of a government that works and united, despite the fact that governance problems persist. For now, political arena seems to be a unilateral contest. With a paralyzed opposition, a solid parliamentary majority and little visible public resistance, the ruling alliance seems to have total control, at least until the next main change.
The fall of PTI is not just about arrests or disqualifications. It is a part that lost its organizational discipline, faced the same forces that once helped it increase only to demand the same again and could not protect or gather its support base when it mattered more. From the dominant national headlines to being pushed to the margins, PTI’s trip in recent years is a study in political reversion. And without a clear path forward, without first level leadership in operation and without signs of reconciliation with the centers of power, the party that once ruled Islamabad now observes from the cost; increasingly limited to KP.
For now, the streets are quiet, the opposition is broken and the rowing rowing coalition without response.
