Fahd Husain

They flew in from America, rushed to Aabpara, traipsed across to Adiala then jetted back to America. And the net result?

It is in fact this debate about the net result that has triggered a controversy. The delegation of well-established pro-Imran Khan Pakistani Americans came to town recently in an attempt to get relief for their incarcerated leader. According to credible reports, they met high ranking officials in the ISI headquarters and presented their case for why Khan should be released. They were then also facilitated to meet Khan at Adiala. Details remain sketchy, but there is nothing sketchy about what transpired later.

Many PTI overseas supporters heaped scorn on the delegation for taking this unilateral step without a clear mandate from the leadership. Others accused them of bending the knee to the establishment without any quid pro quo. Still others complained such an engagement signalled weakness when the party really needed to show strength in the face of adversity.

But the bigger question – beyond these internal PTI conflicts and contradictions – is this: is the establishment ready to speak with Imran Khan, and is he finally willing to play ball?

Enter Azam Swati. Smarting from criticism by party people that he does the establishment’s bidding, Swati let loose and lashed out. Imran Khan told me, he said in a video message, that he was willing to open talks with army chief Gen Asim Munir. If Swati is to be believed, then something is definitely cooking. But who’s the cook?

This is where things go off script.

But first, some context. Amid all the shrieking, howling and abuse that goes dressed up as our national discourse, two primary questions define the crux of the situation. Within the establishment, the key question is how to deal with Imran Khan. Within the PTI, the key question is how to deal with the establishment.

According to Red Zone insiders, the military high command realizes that the logic of economic stability ushering in political normalcy goes only so far. If therefore economics and politics are to, at some point, converge into a synchronized policy matrix, Khan will need to be brought inside the tent. Economic stability plays a key role by strengthening the high command’s bargaining position for talks with Khan, whenever those happen. Which means – as per this argument – that the high command may not be in any rush to reach out to Adiala. The fruits of an improving economy, the real juicy ones, may yet be a few years away.

In the PTI camp though, lack of clarity flows freely. What once constituted whispered difference of opinion among the leadership has now exploded into an ugly public spat. Azam Swati’s video confessions are the latest in a series of inter-party accusations that mostly revolve around the establishment and what to do with it. The confusion, in many ways, is triggered by the conflicting statements of Khan himself. It then permeates through the various groups, layers and permutations of the party cadre. By the time the message reaches the intended audience – the establishment – it is so muddied as to be rendered undecipherable.

The list of the party’s groups, cliques and lobbies is long. And growing. There’s the KP group, and within it is the Ali Amin Gandapur group and the Atif Khan group. Then within these is the elected versus non-elected group. And within these is the lobby that wants to engage with the establishment while the other group – manifested this weekend by Murad Saeed making a video appearance – favours and aggressive approach.

Wait, there’s more. In the centre the same fault lines are replicated within the party leadership, except with a difference: the lawyer vs non-lawyer group has its own soap opera playing out. Within this too, there is a lawyer vs lawyer tension best reflected in the public acrimony between Salman Raja and Faisal Chaudhry. Then of course, there’s Khan’s family. It draws its power and prestige from its lineage but is locked out of parliamentary party decisions that often generate their own dynamics on the floor of the house and in committee meetings. If there was space for any more confusion left, that is filled by the PTI diaspora. And the weaponized social media. The confusion is deafening, and the conclusion is clear: with Khan in jail, the party is in a mess.

This suits the establishment high command mighty well. They know that talking about talking to the man in Adiala is hugely different from talking to the man in Adiala.

In other words, there is little change in the establishment’s approach towards PTI and its incarcerated leader. But then what choice does Khan have? The expected revolution has not broken out. The system remains unyielding. The party, though far from over, is hacking away at its own feet. And the call from Washington? Well, that’s turning into a distant memory of an event that never transpired beyond hope.

Hope now requires a plan of action. If Khan’s plan is to re-engage with the establishment, it will require patience. And clarity. And muzzling the toxic social media. Can he manage all three?

(The writer is a senior journalist & political commentator. His X handle is @fahdhusain)