THE PTI’s urge to expand its protest resulted in a sizeable rally in Karachi on Sunday. The change in locale from Islamabad where Imran Khan has been holding his dharna for the last five weeks entailed a necessary adjustment of target for the party.

The ‘Go Nawaz Go’ slogan remained the rallying call but underneath it much of the rhetoric was aimed at no longer just the PML-N. Mr Khan had been earlier unsuccessfully wooing the PPP in his campaign to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Now he lambasted the PPP for exploiting rural Sindh in the name of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He was not overtly critical of the MQM — although earlier the PTI had accused it of poll irregularities, the main plank of its current campaign as well. But his message was that if the people of Sindh were able to unite and rise above ethnic politics, the emerging collective would be large enough to work as an effective third force in Sindh.

The MQM has shown signs that it realises the importance of the PTI’s challenge. And the PPP could always do with a nudge or two from a possible opponent. Consequently, whereas it is difficult at the moment to measure how far the PTI can go in Sindh, there is significance in Mr Khan carrying the battle to the province.

The labels do not matter much. Call it the politics of change or populist politics, so long as it brings greater choices to the people, the PTI will have a role, and Mr Khan’s opponents should not underestimate him.

At the Karachi rally, Imran Khan indicated he was planning to have similar shows in Lahore and elsewhere in the country. This belies an attempt by the PTI chief to try and play to his strength — cashing in on the PTI’s popularity among the middle class in various cities.

His dharna has kept him and his party centre stage since mid-August but many believed that the sit-in was not the most advisable mode for the PTI; instead, they favoured a series of public meetings all over Pakistan, which to their mind were easier organised and less taxing on the party. Now, the public meetings elsewhere in the country will complement the sit-in in Islamabad, where the numbers of participants have fluctuated. These are not bad tactics in the attempt to show the extent of support for the PTI.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2014