The sound and the fury.

Perhaps the loudest comment on the PTI's long-anticipated Long March came from party chief Imran Khan's arrival at those who stayed overnight, and his equally rapid disappearance towards his Bani Gala residence when he saw that the protesters were not present in anywhere near the numbers he had anticpated. As is so often said, actions speak louder than words. His departure was followed by even more of the protesters, who could explain it away by thinking to themselves they were merely following the party leader. A lot of those who have fought the good fight, but found that the government was still in place the morning after, decided that discretion was the better part of valour. The help from the establishment was not visible either. There was no help offered to keep people in place. There was no support of the government shown by shooting at the crowd, but it never came even close to that, and the government only used the police to maintain law and order.

True, law and order came under stress. The incidents of arson and riot when the protesters reached D-Chowk showed that a greater conflagration was avoided, but it also represented a direct defiance of the Supreme Court's order that the sit-in be held in H-9. However...