The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has postponed its planned Islamabad march from September 27 to October 4, but the decision is unlikely to resolve the underlying political deadlock, with informed sources saying that merely changing the date will not create the political space or relief the party is seeking. At the same time, the political position of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has reportedly come under question amid the escalating confrontation surrounding the PTI's protest strategy.
One source familiar with the situation told this correspondent that Afridi's position as chief minister is now considered seriously vulnerable. The postponement of the march appears to have changed the date but not the fundamental issue between the PTI and the authorities, admits the senior PTI leadership. According to party sources, the message conveyed to the PTI leadership was that postponing the march and giving it a new date would not, by itself, solve the problem.
The sources said that if the PTI wants to regain political space and expects any meaningful relief through political engagement, it would have to reconsider the broader method through which it has been pursuing its political objectives particularly repeated marches, road blockades and attempts to shut down the federal capital. According to the sources, the issue is no longer September 27 versus October 4. The issue is the politics of repeated street mobilisation and road blockades itself.
The PTI political committee on Friday reportedly decided to defer the march from September 27 to October 4. It is said that the march would leave Peshawar on October 4. The decision came after days of intense preparations and a major security build-up by the federal and Punjab governments.
Rangers have been deployed in Islamabad and several Punjab districts, while major routes have been blocked or restricted ahead of the proposed mobilisation. Interestingly, the postponement came after PTI leaders, including Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, had publicly insisted only hours earlier that the march would go ahead despite road blockades and other government measures. Afridi had said that the protest would be peaceful and that the constitutional right of assembly could not be denied.
The reversal has therefore added to the internal debate within the PTI, where a section of the leadership has favoured proceeding with street mobilisation while some senior figures have advocated a more cautious political approach. According to party sources, some senior leaders had earlier warned against allowing the confrontation to reach its present level, but their advice did not receive the weight they had sought.
The situation is particularly difficult in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where PTI is in government. Party sources complain that the provincial government is finding it increasingly difficult to exercise administrative authority in relation to the proposed mobilisation. According to these sources, neither the police nor the district administration is responding to the provincial government's directions in the manner expected by the PTI leadership.
PTI circles also claim that police have raided the residences of some provincial ministers and that some PTI leaders and MPAs have also been detained in KP. The result, according to party sources, is a growing sense of political and administrative helplessness within the provincial government despite PTI being in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.