Last week, Imran Khan hit the campaign trail when many had declared him badly wounded by the loss his Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party suffered in the first phase of local council elections.

But he was seen stomping from Umerkot in Sindh to his hometown Mianwali, undeterred by the dust raised by his detractors over the break-up of his second marriage.

That he could still attract crowds would have dismayed his political foes, most of whom have been writing off the PTI as a serious challenge.

At each turn of adversity that has come the party’s way since the Supreme Court inquiry commission declared that the 2013 general elections were mismanaged but not “systematically” rigged, its foes proclaimed that Imran Khan and his party had been done with.

Naturally, the return of a robust Imran Khan, and the party he leads, surprised them.

Background discussions with senior PTI officials shed some light on their resilience. According to them, the captain is playing with his eyes on the bigger game — the 2018 general elections.

“Anyone who knows Imran Khan personally knows that he is not a man to sit idle. Be it party reorganization, raising funds for a new cancer hospital, local elections, or protesting against members of the election commission, you will always find him in a battle,” said one PTI official.

To him, Khan alone can bear all the stress the simultaneous battles involve. “He neither has the sentiment, nor the time to brood over — much less cry over — political reverses like the shock defeat in the all important NA-122 by-elections in Lahore,” the official said.

But politics is a different ball game than cricket. Can his cricket tactics stump out the well-entrenched PML-N in the real world?

“True, the political pitch is hostile to us, but our leader has charisma,” responded another PTI official. A member of the inner sanctum of the PTI, he sounded as if the reigning Sharif brothers have lost theirs. But he acknowledged the odds quickly.

“Confronted by an unwritten pact between the political parties to oppose the PTI, we are left with one option — to expose their bad governance and opportunistic politics by all means, all the time and spread our party’s message of ‘Justice for All’,” he said.

So Imran Khan has to be on the move “all the time in all circumstances to keep PTI alive and kicking”.

A third party leader had more pragmatic thoughts to offer. “Like our biggest adversary, the PML-N, we should also try to turn things in our favour,” he said, adding that the PTI leadership has worked out a two-pronged strategy in the run-up to the 2018 general elections.

One makes the PTI chairman responsible for seeing that the PTI-led government in Khyber Pakthukhwa is run efficiently. Even if the PML-N fails to deliver its promises at the federal level and in its stronghold of Punjab, the PTI wouldn’t stand a chance winning the 2018 battle unless it brought visible and concrete change in the province it rules. So Imran Khan would be seen more often in the province in the coming months.

Secondly, the party leaders in KP also think that his presence in the public sphere is a must for the larger ambition of the party. “Whether others agree or not, Imran Khan has the charisma to lead from the front and catch the imagination of the people. With him on the go, we feel more confident of winning the next national elections,” said the PTI pragmatist.

Indeed, Imran is worrying more these days about his party’s performance in KP than losing the local elections in Punjab. It is said he plainly warned party leaders called to his Islamabad residence to review the loss, that PTI’s future is tied to improving healthcare, education and employment opportunities where it can.

As a political analyst said, Imran’s financial integrity and public service record distinguish him from other political leaders. “Still, his party’s future will be decided by what his colleagues are able to deliver in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2015