Former Prime Minister and Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the largest political party of Pakistan, Imran Khan, had a hair breadth escape when an assassination attempt on his life failed but not before seriously injuring him with four gunshots.

Imran Khan was shot in the Wazirabad town near Gujrat in the Punjab province when he was leading a protest march to Islamabad to force fresh national elections. The massive Long March started from Lahore and was moving towards Islamabad through the historic Grand Trunk Road (GTR), the main artery running across the length of Pakistan, to rally supporters. The cavalcade of Imran Khan, sitting atop a huge container, was fired upon and one of the assassins was arrested through a heroic effort of a PTI supporter, Ibtisam, who spotted the assassin, named Naveed, and tried to overpower him and was able to do so to a great extent, disabling the shooter not to be able to achieve his target.

Circumstantial evidence suggests that there were more than one shooter while the others fled. Although Naveed, in his statement in police custody, divulged that he wanted to kill Imran Khan because he was showing disrespect to Azan (Islamic call to prayers) by playing music in the PTI march simultaneously. The self-admitted assassin, Naveed, claimed that he was a lone-wolf and no one was behind him. However, latter investigations by police officials show that it was a well-planned assassination attempt.

Importantly, Imran Khan himself named Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Minister of Interior Rana Sanaullah and a senior officer of a top intelligence agency for orchestrating the plan of assassination. But more than the minute details of the assassination attempt on Mr. Khan, the more important aspect of the incident is that the former prime minister was nearly killed. God forbid, had he been killed it would have been a great loss to Pakistan, because Imran Khan indubitably is the only national level or federal level leader left in Pakistan and thus his party is a symbol of federation as it has a huge following in all the four provinces of the country as well as Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, where the PTI has its governments. Apart from it, the PTI also has governments in the largest province of Punjab and another key province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Moreover, Imran Khan is a face of Pakistan being a former top international cricketer, a well-renowned philanthropist and a vociferous voice against Islamophobia on the international level.

There is no doubt that the PTI is fundamentally a one-man party and it entirely revolves around the person of Imran Khan. Therefore, if Imran Khan is no longer alive or becomes physically handicapped to command the party or possibly work as prime minister, then the PTI would face serious challenges to remain a viable entity or keep afloat or even survive. This would not be a good omen for Pakistan because people come and go as every human and living being has to die. This is a part of our faith while the time of death is indeterminate. So if Imran Khan dies due to unnatural or man-made or even natural causes, then the PTI would face an existential crisis. It would not be good for Pakistan at all as Imran Khan has transformed the PTI into a real federal party. He was able to do so when all other political parties have become ethno-nationalist or provincial parties. This is no little achievement. Therefore, the country needs the PTI whether Imran Khan remains or not. Now the question is how this could be possible. No one else but Mr. Khan and the party’s leadership could tell how it is possible. However, for a political analyst, there could be one very important way to keep the PTI intact and viable even after Imran Khan’s death, incarceration or disqualification. Before dilating upon this it becomes important to explain that unlike all other main political parties, sans Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), are family-based parties. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Awami National Party (ANP) etc. are family-dominated political groups. The MQM only has a non-family supervisory body known as the Rabita Council or Coordination Committee. After banning of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) due to seditious tirades by party founding head Altaf Hussain, self-exiled for decades in London, the party re-emerged as MQM-Pakistan and as the cult figure of Altaf no more there, it had to form the coordination committee to keep itself intact. However, the MQM has become quite weak because of its past fascist tactics which kept urban Sindh particularly Karachi a virtual fiefdom of the party. Moreover, it is an ethnic party which at least is not the necessity of Pakistan. But the PTI would have to develop a similar body like a governing council to keep itself intact and running in case Imran Khan is no more there. This may be hard to imagine for diehard supporters of the PTI but this has to happen one day. One could only pray that Imran Khan lives long. In the would-be governing council the decision-making of the PTI ought to be unanimous. It would be good for Imran Khan to announce the formation of a governing council of the party in his lifetime. In the unfolding situation when Imran Khan has experienced one assassination attempt and he is hell-bent upon moving forward with his plan of taking the long march to Islamabad, there are ample chances of more such assassination bids. In this backdrop, it would be good for the PTI that Imran Khan announces a governing council as soon as possible. All important leaders of the party must be a part of the governing council. There are very senior, seasoned, upright and clean politicians in the ranks of the PTI. For instance, there is Shah Mehmud Qureshi as Vice Chairman, Asad Umar as Secretary General, Pervez Khattak as head of KP province, the heartland of the PTI, Ijaz Chaudhry, president of the Punjab province and many others who can be a part of the governing council. Unless Mr. Khan does not form a governing council which would look after the PTI after his lifetime, then all his decades’ long efforts to put an end to politics of nepotism, injustice and corruption would become futile. Hundreds and thousands of Pakistanis have sacrificed for the PTI’s and Mr. Khan’s agenda and in case the PTI becomes ineffective then all their sacrifices would also go down the drain, which would be a great loss to Pakistan.