The "do or die" protest ended with a whimper just two days after the long march to Islamabad began. The blame for this will be laid squarely on Imran's third wife (Bushra) for not listening to party leaders, including Imran Khan, who also advised her to gather at Sangjani instead of D-chowk. Of course, none of this would have happened if Imran (a psychopath) had not married her. This woman is supposed to have advised Imran Khan over the past five years when he was the prime minister. It was due to her insistence that he appointed a man of her choice to run the largest province in the country. With her man in charge, she managed to loot the country and this ultimately resulted in Imran Khan's ouster. Yesterday, she and Ali Amin Gandapur (chief minister of KP) fled in one car after police began firing at the protestors, most of whom fled from the scene in panic, some of them even leaving their cars behind. Gandapur himself had claimed that he wouldn't leave even if bullets were fired at him. Now he has a lot of explaining to do to those whom he persuaded to join the march. He should be removed from the party immediately if there is any accountability in it.

There are many lessons to be learnt from this fiasco. The first is that  Imran's party is not as popular as it may have been before, and I'm firmly convinced that the recent elections were rigged so his party could rule in one province. His popularity is limited to the society begums and their husbands in some urban areas of the country as well as young Pathans in KP. With the ignominious retreat yesterday by Bushra and Gandapur, I doubt if his party can win elections in future. Now the government should step in, persuade disgruntled PTI members to resign and hold bye-elections. The party has been routed in recent local bodies elections, and I'm sure it will lose in bye-elections as well.

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