Daily Times Editorials 11th August 2026

Confused Command

September 27 has now been chosen for yet another long march on Islamabad as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi claimed that continued protest is unavoidable because Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s grievances are not being heard.

The announcement should have demonstrated unity of purpose. Instead, it immediately exposed the uncertainty that continues to surround decision-making within the party. Party founder Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan has already expressed reservations, while Mr Afridi has had to deny an allegation that he met Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi before the protest schedule was finalised. His description of Ms Khan as a “non-political individual” may be formally correct. It sits less easily with the reality of PTI politics since Mr Khan’s incarceration.

His family, lawyers, party office-bearers and those granted access to him have all, at different times, become conduits for his views. Disagreements over access to the former prime minister have consequently become disagreements over authority itself.History

Such strains have surfaced repeatedly. Leaders Salman Akram Raja and Barrister Gohar have differed over access to Mr Khan. Mr Raja has previously offered to resign amid internal recriminations and has complained about leaks from the political and core committees as well as attempts by elements within PTI to undermine him. Now details of an acrimonious WhatsApp exchange between Senator Mushaal Yousafzai and Mr Raja have reached the media, with the former levelling serious allegations and the latter challenging her to prove them.

A party built so heavily around one leader was always going to struggle when that leader became inaccessible. But incarceration cannot indefinitely serve as an explanation for organisational drift. Since PTI seeks constitutional rule and respect for representative institutions, it should have little difficulty understanding why rules and discipline also matter within a political party.

The proposed march also revives a larger question about the party’s political course. Peaceful protest is its democratic right. Its grievances should be heard, and the federal government would be mistaken to believe that shrinking political space can deliver stability. A political dispute of this magnitude ultimately requires political engagement. But protest needs a purpose beyond protest. PTI has repeatedly turned to marches, rallies and mobilisation calls, each intended to increase pressure on its opponents. What remains unclear is what another journey to Islamabad is expected to accomplish, how success will be measured and what political course follows if the government does not yield.

The burden appears even heavier for Mr Afridi, who is not simply a party organiser, but chief executive of a province carrying an extraordinary security burden. In July, terrorism left 154 people dead in mainland Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and another 79 in the merged districts. His own government has identified peace, health, education and human development as priorities and has promised major investments in these sectors. Those responsibilities require a chief minister’s full attention. KP cannot continue to serve as the political and logistical base for confrontations in Islamabad while militancy tests its law-enforcement machinery and vulnerable districts wait for the government to deliver. *

Jharkhand Protests

Thousands of young Indians marched towards the Jharkhand legislature on Monday, protesting alleged irregularities in civil-service recruitment examinations. Yet, just weeks after the massive “cockroach” protests, police again reached for water cannon, tear gas and batons. The agitation had already run for more than two weeks. Six protesters were reportedly on hunger strike. Ranchi may be the latest flashpoint, but the anger it represents has been travelling across India for some time.

Only weeks ago, Delhi witnessed the extraordinary rise of the self-styled Cockroach Janta Party, a youth movement born from fury over examination leaks, unemployment and an education system in which years of preparation can be erased by somebody selling a question paper. Its demonstrations helped force Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from office in July. By early August, founder Abhijeet Dipke commanded more than 22 million Instagram followers. Social-media numbers are no substitute for votes, though politicians would be foolish to miss what such velocity says about the reservoir of resentment underneath.

An investigation tracing 45 major paper-leak cases between 2002 and 2025, each involving at least 100,000 candidates, found that only two had produced convictions. Of 1,658 people arrested, merely 18 were eventually convicted. Those figures speak volumes about what has driven young Indians onto the streets. For a middle-class or lower-income household that has poured savings into coaching and years of preparation, corruption in an examination hall carries a peculiar cruelty. Competitive testing is supposed to offer the child without connections a narrow passage towards security. Once the paper itself becomes merchandise, faith in that bargain begins to collapse.

Jobs make the bargain increasingly desperate. State of Working India 2026 puts unemployment among graduates aged 15 to 25 at nearly 40 per cent and around 20 per cent among those aged 25 to 29. India is approaching the peak of a demographic dividend celebrated for two decades in speeches about growth and national power, even as the expansion of higher education has outrun the creation of stable graduate employment.

Jharkhand complicates any easy partisan explanation because its government is opposed to Narendra Modi’s BJP. That makes Ranchi more politically consequential. Examination scandals and recruitment anger have escaped party boundaries, while New Delhi still carries the heavier burden of a national economic promise built around a young workforce. The Modi government has recognised the danger, announcing fast-track courts for examination-leak cases and scrambling to reconnect with young voters. Administrative repair, however, will have to travel considerably farther than social-media outreach.

There is an old danger in mistaking demographic abundance for economic strength. Young people become a dividend only when an economy can educate them, test them fairly and put their abilities to productive use. Otherwise their grievance add yet another layer to a heart-wrenching ledger of disappointed expectations. *