Will Imran pull it off like Nawaz did?

ISLAMABAD -- In the unforgiving battlefield of politics when PTI chairman and deposed premier Imran Khan's party crumbled like a house of cards, the haunting question that lingers on is that will he navigate through this storm as deftly as his predecessor PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, among others, did or will he succumb to the relentless deluges.

At a time when the PTI chairman party's foundation is quivering and several bigwigs of the party have quit it in the wake of the May 9 violence, the experts closely monitoring the events say that though it is difficult to make people forget about a popular leader, matters largely depend on how Imran moves from now onwards to turn the tables on his fate and opponents.

Imran, who is currently facing the full force of the State, still seems determined to prevent the house from falling apart and urging the authorities to announce the date of elections, hoping that he will win and return to power.

He, along with his party members, are facing the wrath of the government as well as the army after PTI activists attacked civil and military installations of the country when he was arrested in a graft case by Rangers troops on May 9.

The PTI chief, however, is not the first one who has drawn the ire of the powers that be.

In fact, he seems to be the latest addition to the camp that opposes the 'powerful circles' but the only one tagged with crossing the red line.

Several prime ministers of the country have objected to the interference of the 'powerful circles' in the political domain as they believed they should have had the complete authority when given the responsibility to serve the nation as its premier.

For instance, Nawaz, who has been ousted as the prime minister thrice, somehow returned to the post as many times.

Similar to how Imran feels now, Nawaz too had hoped that his party would win the 2018 elections but that did not happen.

This was the time when Nawaz faced a cascade of political and legal challenges and his party appeared to be falling apart but the PML-N survived the onslaught.

Nawaz is still barred from holding a public office but fast forward to 2023, his party is in power again.

'It is difficult to erase popular political leaders from public memory,' Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob told The Express Tribune.

'I have no doubt that Imran Khan will survive irrespective of the fact that he is in government, opposition, in...