In recent days, many great leaders have bid farewell to Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party. All the leaders have left the party citing the events of May 9.

On May 9, 2023, he was mentioned in the press conference of (former) leaders associated with the PTI. In such a situation, the question arises whether Imran Khan has remained alone in PTI, and if not, who is with him now?

After Imran Khan’s arrest on May 9, his supporters burned down several military offices, including the Corps Commander’s House in Lahore and the army headquarters.

After this incident, most of the PTI leaders and workers were arrested. Many of them were arrested again soon after their release, despite court orders.

Shireen Mazari, Malika Bukhari, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema announced that they would be leaving the party shortly after their release from jail.

Apart from them, big names like Fawad Chaudhary, Malik Amin Aslam, Aamir Kayani, Faizullah Kamuka, Chaudhary Hussain Elahi, Chaudhary Wajahat Hussain have announced that they are leaving the party or parting ways with politics.

Tehreek-e-Insaf General Secretary Asad Umar has also announced his resignation from the party post, but has not announced his departure from the party at the moment.

Under mounting pressure, Imran Khan admitted on Wednesday that the number of people contacting him is negligible today. He also called for a conditional return of the leaders leaving the party.

However, nothing is clear on the issue of return. But before this, Jalil Sharqpuri of Tehreek-e-Insaf had suggested that Imran Khan should hand the party over to Chaudhary Parvez Elahi, Asad Umar or Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

However, according to analysts, the possibility of someone else handing over the reins of the party to Imran Khan is unlikely unless legal difficulties or trials close the doors of politics on him.

In such a situation, this question is important, which leaders can lead the PTI without Imran Khan and can this situation be acceptable to party workers?

Before looking for answers to these questions, it is necessary to understand the part of Imran Khan’s speech to the nation in which he indicated to retire.

Imran Khan said in his address to the nation that those who are making decisions to keep Imran Khan away, don’t they see that Pakistan is sinking? Can’t they see they don’t have a roadmap?

He said that “I am ready to form a committee today, it will be a negotiating committee and it will talk to those in power.”

Imran Khan said that ‘I constitute this committee. I say two things: if this committee sits down and says that Pakistan will be better off without Imran Khan and I don’t have any road map, then I repeat that I will leave it myself.”

He said: “Or should they tell this committee what will be the benefit to Pakistan by holding elections in October? We understand that you think by October they will crush Tehreek-e-Insaf, but what will be the benefit to Pakistan? Why wait until October?”.

In the same speech, Imran Khan also stated that it doesn’t matter if someone leaves the party and the person he gives the ticket to will win the election.

On Friday, Imran Khan also announced that he has no intention of leaving the country.

Imran Khan’s claims are in place, but Shah Mahmood Qureshi, one of the party’s biggest figures after Imran Khan, is still in custody and recently said he will not leave the party.

A similar statement also came out from Chaudhary Parvez Elahi’s side, though Chaudhary Parvez Elahi has yet to be arrested and in this statement he also expressed hope for better relations with the army.

Another PTI leader and former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak is also absent from public view in the current situation.

Journalist Sohail Waraich while speaking to the BBC said that “There is only one person in PTI who can replace Imran Khan and that is Shah Mehmood Qureshi.”

However, he said that the ‘minus one formula’ will not succeed without Imran Khan at PTI as this formula has never been successful before.

In response to another question, Sohail Waraich said that “Chaudhary Parvez Elahi is the leader of the ruling party but his arrival in the party is not very old and he has no relationship with the party workers.”

Sohail Waraich says that “Imran Khan is right to say that the departure of someone from the party will not affect his popularity or his vote bank, but the departure of people chosen by the public will make a difference.”

“The people’s representatives have their own vote bank and the party has its own vote.”

Sohail Waraich said that the PTI will suffer more due to the departure of people elected from Punjab than from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.