Islamabad:

Days before Pakistan’s February 8 election, Komal Asghar, wearing a mask and turban, led a procession of similarly dressed women through the alleys of the eastern city of Lahore.

Their mission: go door-to-door to distribute campaign pamphlets with a photo of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Asghar, a 25-year-old insurance employee, gave up her day job for a month to canvass for Khan’s embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Khan has been in jail since August. Many PTI candidates have been jailed or are evading criminal and terrorism charges, which they say are politically motivated. A Reuters reporter witnessed one of many rallies that PTI supporters said had been disrupted.

“I am with Khan. I don’t care about my life. My God is with me,” Asghar said, adding that opponents of the former prime minister could “do whatever they want.”

Face and hair coverings – which not all women typically wear – make it easier for them to lobby without drawing unwanted attention, Asghar said. The public does not view women as threatening, making their campaigns less likely to lead to conflict, she said.

According to interviews with 15 candidates and supporters, as well as political analysts and IT experts, PTI is deploying a two-pronged campaign strategy of secret campaigning (often led by female teacher volunteers) and generative artificial intelligence technology.

The party used generative artificial intelligence to create a video of its founder Khan reading a speech he delivered to lawyers from a prison cell, urging supporters to go to the polls on election day. It organized online rallies on social media that were viewed by hundreds of thousands at a time, according to YouTube.

Khan, who was banned from holding political office by a court last year, is not the first Pakistani leader to be jailed during a campaign. But PTI’s ability to leverage new technologies and the former cricketer’s personal popularity have kept him in the headlines.

One man show?

On January 30, Khan was sentenced to ten years in prison for leaking state secrets. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for illegally selling state gifts. On Saturday, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for illegal marriage. He denies all charges and his lawyers say they plan to appeal.

The 71-year-old won his last election in 2018 but was ousted in 2022 after falling out with the country’s powerful military, which PTI accused of trying to eliminate the military.

The military has denied the accusations, and interim information minister Murtaza Solangi told Reuters that PTI would only halt campaigning if it did not have the required permits or if supporters clashed with law enforcement.

Usman Anwar, the police chief of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, said his force’s job was to provide security: “We have not and will not interfere in any political process.”

Human rights groups and political opponents accuse Khan of undermining democratic norms during his time in power by cracking down on the media and persecuting his opponents through an anti-corruption court that sentenced him on Wednesday.

PTI and Khan called the allegations baseless.

There are no reliable public opinion polls yet, but independent analysts such as PTI staff and Madiha Afzal of the US-based Brookings Institution think tank say Khan maintains strong support, especially among the country’s large young population.

Afzal said the restrictions could nonetheless limit PTI’s ability to compete with rivals such as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which is led by front-runner former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Sharif returned from exile late last year, and the Supreme Court recently overturned his corruption conviction and lifetime ban from politics.

A PML-N spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

“The major structural obstacles faced by the BJP in this election… make it likely that the party will fail despite its popularity,” Afzal said, adding that Khan’s loyal supporters meant that now It would be too early to write off the party entirely.

PTI has not yet revealed who it will nominate as prime minister if it wins on February 8.

virtual event

Jibran Ilyas, PTI’s US-based social media leader, said restrictions on the party forced it to prioritize digital campaigning. Like the party’s other digital leaders, he is based abroad.

Although only about half of Pakistan’s 240 million people own smartphones and internet connections are spotty, PTI hopes it can reach enough young people to influence the election. The voting age is 18, and more than two-thirds of voters are under 45.

Central to the strategy is reminding those who might have voted for the PTI because of its famous founder that it remains Khan’s party.

“We have never held a political rally without Imran Khan, so when we planned an online rally we wanted to find a way to showcase him to people,” Ilyas said.

His team used generative artificial intelligence software from US startup ElevenLabs to create three clips of the former prime minister’s speech. Khan’s lawyers passed messages between the PTI and its founder during prison visits and the party transcribed the speeches from his notes.

“We discussed the potential for misuse and decided to stick with audio AI only,” Ilias said.

ElevenLabs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The PTI has also created an app that allows Facebook and WhatsApp users to find the party’s candidates in their constituencies. PTI’s cricket bat election symbol is considered by many voters as their logo, but the Election Commission recently banned PTI from using the symbol on the grounds that it did not hold internal leadership elections. The decision means PTI candidates are running without official party affiliation.

The PTI has also held online rallies in an attempt to recreate jalsa, the massive Urdu-language rallies held in parks and major intersections across the country.

But voters had trouble attending rallies. Since Khan was first arrested in May, Netblocks global internet monitor found that access to social media platforms such as YouTube, X and Facebook was disrupted six times when PTI held virtual Jalsa.

Information Minister Solanji said the nationwide outage was due to technical reasons unrelated to PTI activities. Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority did not respond to requests for comment.

police presence

Despite PTI’s online influence, elections in Pakistan – whose voters live in crowded port cities, vast deserts and some of the world’s highest mountains – depend on turnout by election workers.

Banners and posters of political parties such as the PML-N can be seen across the country, but Reuters reporters could hardly see PTI banners in Karachi and Lahore, two places with a combined population of more than 30 million.

Lahore-based PTI organizer Naveed Gul said the posters were often taken down by authorities soon after they were put up, an accusation that Punjab police chief Anwar called “malicious”. Reuters could not independently verify whether the PTI party material had been removed.

The ongoing crackdown erupted on January 28, when the PTI planned to hold a nationwide rally on a cool Sunday morning.

But violent clashes broke out between police and Khan’s supporters in Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous city. Law enforcement fired tear gas canisters, according to television footage. A police spokesman said 72 people were arrested within three days of the clashes.

In Lahore, hundreds of PTI workers and supporters gathered at the home of Khan’s chief lawyer Salman Akram Raja, who is also PTI’s legislative candidate. As he emerged from his home, a Reuters reporter saw him encounter a large group of police.

Raja said he was threatened with detention if he did not cancel the planned rally, and Reuters reporters heard a police official tell him they had received “orders from the top.”

When asked about the matter, police chief Anwar said he would investigate if a formal complaint was made.

After consulting with aides, Raja told supporters to disperse peacefully. He told Reuters it was important to escape detention and be able to campaign, even in a limited way, in the run-up to the election.

“Every time we go out and campaign, most candidates are afraid,” he said. “Everybody feels like every day of the campaign … is a war.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)