Nadeem F. Piracha (the sole repository of wisdom on social and political movements) (mis)-strikes again.

His latest piece in Dawn is an exercise in obfuscation of the highest order. Miss-inspired by a couple of articles and an example here and there (with no external validity to prove his point), the author builds on his assumptions, masquerading as proven truths ...

and comes up with a laughable thesis.
PTI had no preceding "Social Movement" to speak of, when it was formed by Imran Khan in 1996. The only movement was the crowd funding of the Shaukat Khanum Hospital - hardly worthy of being called a social movement, ...

since it was supported by a cross section of the entire society. It was a totally apolitical shout out for funding a cancer hospital.

PTI's first attempt at elections was rejected by his own support base - a wide segment of society who cheered for his game and funded his hospital.