Imran Khan's Long March: Few people or coming to Islamabad at the time of army chief's appointment is part of the strategy?

 Imran Khan's Long March: Few people or coming to Islamabad at the time of army chief's appointment is part of the strategy?

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf's long march has been going on for five days from Lahore, but it has only reached Gujranwala. On the first day, the march started from Liberty Chowk in Lahore and ended at Data Darbar around 12 o'clock in the night.After that, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan, who was leading the march on a container, went to Zaman Park, his residence in Lahore.After the first day, the routine has been the same. On the second day, the long march started from Shahdara, but after only a few hours, it ended before Muridke. Imran Khan went back to Lahore from there. They reached Shahdara around one o'clock in the day.In the next few days, Imran Khan continued to arrive in the march around the same time after which the march is started. However, the participants only travel for a few hours and then the march is called off for the day. In practice, the journey of marchers from one point to another did not seem to take more than a few hours in a day.If we look at the long marches conducted by the leaders of other political parties including Imran Khan in the past, it is found that despite the large number of people participating in the march, the speed of the march has been much faster.Journalist and analyst Sohail Waraich believes that this time the pace of the march is being kept slow as part of a regular strategy by the PTI. "They want their march to reach Islamabad when it is time to appoint a new army chief in the country."

It should be remembered that there is a change of command of the army in Pakistan in the month of November itself. At the end of the month, the three-year extension of the current Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa's tenure expires and according to the army spokesperson, he has decided to retire without further extension. A new plan for the march has been released by the PTI, according to which their march will move more slowly and reach Jhelum by next Sunday. According to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan and other leaders in the leadership, 'the number of people involved in the march is so large that it is slowing down its progress.'However, some analysts believe that the opposite is actually the case. In his opinion, the number of people is less than expected. Journalist and analyst Saleem Bukhari says that there are not as many people in the long march as Imran Khan and his party expected. "They were talking about millions, but here the matter has turned out to be thousands."But Saleem Bukhari also believes that the progress of the Long March is slow and he also feels that it is Imran Khan's strategy to do so.

What can be the strategy to reach Islamabad at the time of appointment of Army Chief? According to journalist and analyst Sohail Waraich, PTI's strategy seems to be to slow down and arrive in Islamabad when the time to appoint the next army chief is near. "In this way, pressure can be put on the government."However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has already said in a statement that he will appoint the next army chief using his constitutional He had made a claim that 'Imran Khan had sent a message to him through a common friend that you give three names, I give three, together they appoint the army chief. But I refused by saying thank you. However, Imran Khan denied this statement while addressing the Long March the next day.So, will Imran Khan be able to convince Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif when he reaches Islamabad after taking the long march? Do they want an army chief of their choice to be appointed? And if so, how can they succeed in this intention through the long march?According to Sohail Waraich, 'Even if they do not want the appointment of an army chief of their choice, they do not want to be completely ignored on this issue.' "It will be assessed when they reach Islamabad with the march.""Long March has nothing to do with Army Chief's appointment" While agreeing with him that the PTI is deliberately keeping its advance slow, journalist and analyst Salman Ghani also believes that 'November is the month of Imran Khan and his party. They want to reach Islamabad at the same time because the new army chief is to be appointed in the same month.However, former Federal Minister and Central Information Secretary of PTI, Farrukh Habib, while talking to BBC, denied the impression that PTI's long march is slow.He also denied that his party was deliberately slowing down the advance of the Long March to reach Islamabad in time for the appointment of the new army chief.He says that the long march has nothing to do with the appointment of the army chief. This is not our demand. Our demand from the first day is that the government should give a date for the new general elections.Farrukh Habib said that his aim with the long march is to hold new general elections in the country soon, which he is demanding from the government.According to PTI's Central Information Secretary, the long march of his party starting from Lahore is not slowing down but has covered a short distance due to the huge number of people.

Is the pace of the march being kept low because of backdoor talks? Some political observers believe that one of the reasons for the slow pace of PTI's long march is that backdoor talks are taking place between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and the 'Establishment'. That is, PTI hopes that they can get their demands accepted through this discussion.On this, Salman Ghani says that if PTI chief Imran Khan is having a conversation with the political leadership, then there must be many people among the politicians who think that there is more than a gap of two or three months between the elections. It doesn't matter."If it is decided that the elections are to be held next year, if they are held two or three months earlier, but it can maintain stability in the country, then two or three months does not make much difference."However, in his opinion, elections are not Imran Khan's target anymore. They just want to cause chaos.But if martial law is imposed in such a situation, then only Imran Khan will not be responsible. The rest of the political leadership will be equally responsible.