When Musharraf came, tons of politicians quit PML-N and joined him to form -Q. No similar mass-quitting movement occured in the PPP, despite Musharraf trying. The reason was - Nawaz tried to grab even more power than military dictators; he passed the the 13th and 14th ammendments clipping the powers of the Presidency(previously, Nawaz and Benazir had both been ousted by Presidents, when they tried to loot) and appointed his puppet President(Rafique Tarrar).
Then Nawaz tried to pass the 15th ammendment using his 2/3rd majority in the parliament. This amendment declared Nawaz Sharif "Ameer-ul Momineen" for life. Even military dictators hadn't had the audacity to try a stunt like this, and this and many other Shahain-Shah moves clearly disturbed PML-N's political cadre.
Then when Nawaz Sharif only made a deal for himself with Musharraf, leaving all his political leaders at Musharraf's mercy, clearly the people were fed up. Nawaz Sharif was to enjoy life in Saudi palaces, leaving them in jails under Musharraf. So they quit in droves. Does that make them "lotas"?
The media makes foolish arguments, and most of us have no understanding of history, and easily get fooled by their lies and half-truths. We don't know the other side of the picture, and can't see the blatantly false conclusions they try to peddle on us.
If you notice, most of the politicians who joined Imran Khan, are rural politicians. In rural politics(where most voters are), a "clean candidate" has no chance of winning, there are feudal/political families on whom people depend for their livelihood, and these people always get the vote. Independent candidates CAN'T win rural constituencies where majority of Pak lives. It's either get some rural power, or stick it out. Imran Khan's already said that for rural politics he'll go with newer faces/younger people from political families, and field new candidates for urban areas.
So I don't understand how the rural candidates are "lotas". When Nawaz Sharif was trying to grab power like a maniac, these people were right to abandon him. They tend to have cleaner records than the current Punjab govt, with Hamza Shahbaz sending
Punjab Police to drag a girl out from her parent's house into a police "dalla", to the pathetic way
Nawaz Sharif embarrassed Pakistan, asking Kim Barker for a date and insisting he buy her an iPhone.
I really hope Pakistan wakes up soon. PPP is Inshallah going to be a non-entity after this rule, won't matter in the next election. Only one province(Punjab) has seen that PML-N is not much better, with rampant corruption and mis-management here as well. Other three provinces might see Nawaz as an alternative. But the fact of the matter is, Nawaz has already ruled FIVE times. This is his fifth government, and nothing has changed, some police system, same bureaucracy. Infact, it's deteriorated during his rule, because of mis-management.