The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf recently marked its 19th Foundation Day. In my opinion, and without any doubts, Imran Khan has worked hard to propel the party from one seat in 2002 to over 30 seats in the National Assembly.

The PTI’s performance in the recent Cantonment boards' elections has also proved that the party has representation in all provinces, even if weak in some regions.

However, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has a lot more to do if it wants to be in winning position in the future elections.

Reorganise the party:

The first thing PTI needs to do is better organisation, an area it lags behind in, compared to its opponent parties If this wasn’t the case, it would have shown a much better performance in the cantonment boards’ polls.

In the general elections of 2013 too, party candidates confined their campaigns to banners and posters, and avoided mingling with the public. As a result, they failed to prevent the tried and tested incompetent candidates from winning in their usual constituencies.

See: Main contenders seen flouting law in campaign for cantt election

If Imran Khan is too busy to act on the lack of organisation in his party, he should hand over the responsibility to someone else, or be prepared for even worse results in the next elections. Chaudhry Sarwar can be of invaluable assistance in this regard.

Resolve internal rifts over 'unfair' tickets:

Other problems with the PTI are its internal conflicts and the unjust distribution of tickets. This resulted in the PML-N sweeping the cantonment board elections in NA-56 Rawalpindi, from where Imran Khan had won in 2013. The PML-N succeeded in winning all 20 seats.

According to a report, the PTI had set up a committee comprising of local leaders for ticket distribution in Rawalpindi. The committee selected three candidates from each ward, and then asked them to withdraw in favour of one candidate voluntarily.

Read on: Analysis: PTI party poll dilemma

When the candidates failed to reach a consensus, the committee, based on its own likes and dislikes, awarded tickets by itself, irking the PTI workers.

PTI supporters. —AP

One other reason of the PTI’s defeat from this area is that Imran Khan has never visited the constituency, even though he had won a seat from here.

Make no more foolish demands:

Imran should learn from his mistakes from the past. It is true that his politics and ‘dharna’ did instill greater consciousness in people; it eventually did end up in the establishment of the judicial commission, but one has to accept the fact that demanding the Prime Minister to resign was an outright ludicrous thing to do. It would be a fair demand only if the rigging had been proved.

The dharna should have restricted its talking points to electoral reforms and an investigation into rigging; not toppling the democratically elected government. This nonsensical demand only made the entire party look like fools.

Explore: 5 things Imran Khan did wrong

Imran Khan, with his constitutional right of protesting, should have taken the parliamentary/legislative route for electoral reforms; in the end, what counts is the precedents you set.

Pay special attention to language:

Last but not least, Imran needs to be careful with the words he chooses for his opponents, not just for political reasons but because a highly educated figure like him should be polite in his language, at all times.

I think it is safe to say that all PTI supporters, like me, look forward to Imran Khan fixing the above mentioned. If he does, they just might put up a good fight in the next elections.

Related:

• PTI’s new direction
  
• Imagine a different Imran
  
• Open letter to Imran Khan, from a PTI voter
  

Translated by Bilal Karim Mughal from the original in Urdu here.