By now, Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have set a record of sorts in street politics, outside the Parliament House. But what else do they have to show for their continuing agitation? Their Azadi March set out from Lahore on August 14, to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif out of power.

Four chaotic weeks later, the nation finds Mian Nawaz Sharif a more powerful prime minister, because the demand united the ruling and the opposition parties in his support to save democracy, which they felt was threatened.

On the other hand, the ranks and file of PTI seem restive as their captain would not declare his inning because he plays to win.

With Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif firmly entrenched, and the flood-hit people in the contested power base of Punjab crying for help, the PTI team faces tough challenges and heavy odds in carrying on their agitation.

“Frustration is building up among PTI cadres in the face of the unfavourable developments,” a senior PTI leader admitted in private. The blowback, in case the PTI fails to secure an honourable exit from the situation, worries the party leadership, minus Imran Khan.

“It can be huge,” one PTI leader, who is seen much on the top of the party leader’s shipping container, told Dawn, “‘What next’ is one hell of a scary thought on everybody’s mind in the party.”

Imran Khan, however, still won’t settle for anything less than the resignation of the prime minister (PM).

“People around us inquire about our strategy, if the deadlock persists,” said a PTI MNA. “As of now, the government is averse to accommodate even our genuine concerns about the election results, what to talk about the PM going on one month leave. Our marchers stand in the middle of nowhere.”

It is said that an overwhelming view in the party is that it should not insist on the resignation, if the government agrees to a consequential investigation of election rigging. But Imran Khan holds on to his belief that his strategy would eventually win. The PTI MNA concurred that the party’s decision to resign from the national and two provincial - Punjab and Sindh - assemblies wasn’t a well thought out strategy.

“It created differences within the party ranks,” said the MNA, pointing to three party colleagues, who refused to resign. “Some have argued that the party continues to run the coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), when dissolving the KP assembly would have made a greater political impact than PTI legislators resigning from rest of the assemblies.”

Others have said that PTI legislators should have resigned en bloc or not at all.

Insiders confide that the sit-in outside the Parliament House is straining the party’s finances. “It has to dig deep into its kitty to keep the dharna going. “I have heard relevant people sharing this concern with senior party leaders,” said a PTI office-bearer.

Though he couldn’t provide the exact amount spent so far, he claimed it ran into “hundreds of millions of rupees”.

“One of the party officials, directly in-charge of the sit-in, even had an exchange of hot words with the top party leadership over the issue,” he said.

That the future of the sit-in looks “a complete tossup”, after a month, is perceptible among the second tier PTI leaders. A settlement with the government, setting aside the condition of the prime minister’s resignation, achieved through the Jamaat-i-Islami emir-led opposition Jirga, might still save face of the party.

Imran Khan has proved his mettle as a cricketer but politics is entirely a different ball game.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014