Imran Khan in pole position.

FIRST things first. Nobody can condemn enough a violent attempt to physically harm or kill a political leader regardless of the severity of disagreement with their views. One can only be relieved and grateful Imran Khan is on the road to recovery after surgeons patched up his bullet and bullet fragment injuries that included a fracture in his leg.

During his first live address to supporters from the hospital, after surviving the attempt on his life, with his fractured right leg up in a cast on a chair, the PTI leader blamed the prime minister, the interior minister and DG C, ISI, for the attempt on his life and called on supporters to protest daily till the three resign.

Editorial: By going public with his accusations, Imran has taken a step he may find impossible to reverse

He reiterated his earlier warning that if peaceful change was not facilitated then there will be a bloody revolution like Iran, as he went through each element of his multi-point narrative honed to perfection over the course of the past few years and fine-tuned to account for his ouster from office in a vote of no-confidence in April this year.

Apart from this rather repetitive message that has been beamed to his support base with telling effect for the past several months, there were two significant points to be picked up from his long statement. The first was that he was putting his 'long march' on hold till he was back to full fitness to lead it again.

We may be right in assuming that the PTI's march is not likely to resume before the new year, if at all it does.

Medical experts put the period of recovery from a fractured tibia, the 'shin bone' at up to 20 weeks but in no case less than a couple of months. During the healing phase, doctors say, walking or standing ie anything that involves putting weight on the affected leg/bone is not allowed so the patient is grounded.

We may then be right in assuming that the march is not likely to resume before the new year, if at all it does resume. By then, whatever decision about the office of the chief of army staff will have been taken and at least on that one crucial front which has been often cited as the cause of many a political convulsion in the country, any anxiety ought to have ended.

In turn, that would also mean that in the event a fresh election demand were to make headway, no such exercise would be possible before early summer at the soonest and possibly even later say June/July or August. Barring, of course...