The Titanic Battle Between PTI and Pakistani Military for the Hearts and Minds of the Pakistani Public

Abstract Since it was ousted from government due to a vote of no confidence in April 2022, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s adept use of social media to counter censorship imposed by the military establishment has become an important case study of both the democratic potential and limitations of digital technologies under highly authoritarian and repressive conditions. For a political party that came to power with the help of the military establishment, PTI’s social media activists’ ability to provide a trenchant critique of the deleterious impact of the military’s role may result in significant long-term challenges to the central role played by the military in Pakistani politics. Through interviews with social media activists, journalists, and supporters of PTI, and an examination of the social media consumption of thirty Pakistani citizens for two and a half years, this article aims to explicate factors that enabled PTI’s narrative to gain traction despite censorship and anti-PTI information blitiz carried on by ISPR, information wing of the military. Four factors were crucial in the success of PTI’s social media campaign: (1) the expertise and agility of PTI social media activists to evade censorship by the government and to strike the right notes in reinforcing PTI’s narrative; (2) moral disgust at some of the kompromat used by those opposing PTI; (3) resentment of privileges enjoyed by the military fueled by high inflation and economic hardships; and (4) popularity of Imran Khan as a moral sovereign who exemplifies the qualities that his supporters see lacking among the governing elite. But PTI’s inability to turn its social media campaigns into stronger street protest illustrates the limitations of virtual activism.