The politicians had known how close electoral victory was with the party ticket.

These are the reasons why it wasn’t easy to take the PTI apart until it became obvious how final the decision was. The PTI, for the moment, is popular in Punjab and has this vote bank but it comes with the leader and his endorsement it is not there for those who have moved on. The best ones need a party ticket to make it across the finish line, preferably coming from a party that has a sizeable following. But there are fewer and fewer electables who can win on their own steam.

The party vote is the consolidating factor. The unhappiness was hard to miss on the day of the launch of the new party. (Ask the Chaudhries.) Going back is never easy not only is the leadership wary, so is the general public, and the media is harsh. In the meantime, there may have been cabinet posts and protocol but the years in the wilderness can be longer and the future uncertain for long. Having seen it happen with the Jatoi-led National People’s Party and the Chaudhry-led PML-Q and even the PPP-Patriots, who does not know that these ‘marriages’ of convenience work only for a short while? Eventually though, politicians have to return to the political parties once their non-political friends step back, for some reason or the other. Read: Losing strong candidates is a blow to PTI’s electoral chances, yet it does not necessarily signal the end As many people keep pointing out, the script is now so old that everyone knows how it turns out - it’s the butler, who did it. This perhaps was less due to the politicians collected there than our collective experience, lived and remembered. The launch was grand and was covered extensively but the reaction was, if we allow for a little bit of slang … meh. From those who had left earlier, such as Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT) and Aleem Khan, to those who retired recently from politics, they were all there. But the biggest news of the week was the launch of yet another new party full of old, familiar faces, who had once walked the halls of Banigala.

The PML-Q is also welcoming a few into its fold. It goes on at full throttle, with Asif Ali Zardari busy meeting electables in the province who are heading for the PPP after a long time. THE PTI juggernaut may have been brought to a stop but politics in Punjab hasn’t.

Destination unknown