ISLAMABAD: With the unveiling of the judicial commission report, on Thursday, one question dominated discussions: how were its findings going to impact Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI)?

Now that the party’s sweeping allegations of widespread rigging in the 2013 elections have been dismissed by the commission, will the PTI’s popularity suffer a knock from which it will not recover?

This is what Thursday evening’s discussions seemed to imply. Many opposition politicians and commentators lashed out at the PTI for making unverified allegations; there were endless requests for Imran Khan to apologise to the nation for making allegations without proof and for wasting people’s time by holding a sit-in.

Read: JC finds 2013 elections 'fair and in accordance with law'

Undoubtedly, many observers agree that the JC’s response to the three Terms of References (ToRs) in the conclusion of the report has served a severe blow to the popularity of the PTI chairman, who relentlessly clamored that the last general elections were rigged and then failed to provide any proof.

However, this observation came with a caveat that despite its follies over the alleged rigging and the dharna, in Punjab the PTI will continue to be the main contender to power and the major rival to the PML-N.

With the PPP still struggling to figure out its role in the Punjab, the PTI is providing the only opposition to the ruling party. And this was brought home by the recent defections of some PPP members to the PTI.

The PML-N also recognises this. Senior PML-N leaders in their private meetings accept that their political battles – for the time being – will be fought against the PTI.

“The recent cantonment board and by-elections have made one thing abundantly clear - be it the upcoming local government elections or general elections in 2018, within the Punjab it will be PML-N verses PTI.”

A senior office bearer of the ruling PML-N said that the party expected a serious challenge from the PTI in the coming local government elections, “We have already started organizing the party for the contest.”

Experts agree. For Rasul Bakhsh Rais, the “dharna was a historic effort that allowed Mr Khan and his party to send his political message across the length and breadth of the country. It helped transform PTI into a national level political party.”

Although some are also of the opinion that the PTI’s campaign has to be given credit for highlighting the need for electoral reforms.

SM Zafar, a senior lawyer and politician, is one such person: “The JC has highlighted for the first time so many anomalies which repeatedly occurred during previous elections. So while the PTI has lost its battle, it has been able push for meaningful electoral reforms.”

“But it will have to face criticism for the time being.” In a similar vein, political scientist Dr Rasool Bakhsh Rais also said that the “the judicial commission has provided a moral victory to the government, but this will not last long.”

He added that the PML-N will continue to face the burden of delivering to the people to sustain itself against a number of challenges.

Indeed, with the local government election exercise taking place in the coming months, the economic challenges facing the country along with regional issues, the judicial commission had long become a side issue. Its proceedings had not garnered even a fraction of the attention the dharna had. Not just because the dharna was a better story but because the PTI’s campaign against the election rigging ended the day it wrapped up its sit-in and returned to the parliament.

The dharna and the allegations were critical back in the summer of 2014, because of the fear that the civil-military divide had fed into the opposition’s discontent and that this combination could lead to the government being sent home. Long marches in the 90s had had this effect.

But once this did not happen and the dharna stretched on, the PTI had no choice to call it off and then return to the parliament. And it did both, the APS tragedy and then the Yemen issue providing it with the justifications respectively.

And once the party had returned to the ‘fake’ parliament and the political matter sorted out, the judicial commission report was hardly ever going to upset the political apple cart – let’s not forget that in Pakistan, politics has always triumphed over legalities.

In other words, PTI’s defeat on the election rigging issue came up last year when the dharna lost steam. And if anyone had doubts about this being the end of the PTI’s defiance, no one could deny that the return to the parliament was its capitulation or acceptance that participation in the political system had proved more important than wild and false dreams of over-turning a system. The judicial commission report is now simply an official confirmation.

Past mistakes can always prove embarrassing in the present. Be it the youthful follies of individuals or political parties, though the latter can and do affect entire countries. Khan and PTI have just been delivered another reminder of their folly. That is perhaps all the judicial commission report will prove to be. What is more important and less clear is if the PTI and its kaptaan have learnt any lessons from their mistakes?

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

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