ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday staged countrywide protests against alleged rigging in the general as well as by-elections and for the release of its incarcerated founder Imran Khan as reports of police crackdown on the party activists in parts of Punjab poured in.
According to Imran Khan-led party, the Punjab Police have arrested dozens of PTI workers and conducted raids at their houses and offices to thwart the protest, Geo TV reported.
Police raided the camp of PTI ticket holder Malik Hamad Ali Awan from PP-151. Police personnel also reached PP-149 ticket holder Hafiz Zeeshan’s election office. According to sources, the police also raided the house of ticket holder Yasir Gilani in Shahdara, Lahore.
The PTI staged protest rallies in Shahdara, Garden Town and other areas of Lahore.
During an interaction with journalists in Islamabad, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan alleged that their sound system and chairs were picked up on the eve of his party’s 28th Foundation Day. “Rigging was committed everywhere to defeat the PTI,” he added.
In Faisalabad, the police stopped the PTI protest rally on the Samandari Road and arrested MNA Changez Khan Kakar, MPA Sheikh Shahid Javed and others.
Taking to X, PTI leader Hammad Azhar alleged that the Lahore police have taken at least 12 of his workers, including a 12-year-old boy, into custody from his constituency.
In a social media post shared on the official X handle of the PTI, the former ruling party lambasted the Punjab Police chief and Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for arresting the 12-year-old.
The PTI staged massive protests and sit-ins across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the party is in power. In DI Khan, a large number of PTI workers held a protest outside the press club. The PTI also held rallies in Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi and other cities of the province.
In Karachi, the PTI took out a protest rally on the Rashid Minhas Road. PTI Sindh Chapter President Haleem Adil Sheikh was leading the rally. Addressing the rally at Char Minar Chowrangi, Sheikh said: “The nation voted us to free PTI founder. Our protest is for the release of Kaptan and against the mandate theft.”
Addressing a press conference in the port city, PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan lashed out at the Punjab IG for his “cruelties” against his party workers. He said that former Punjab CM Mohsin Raza Naqvi had victimised the PTI in the past but now the Punjab IG was doing the same.
Ayub said that they were staging protests for the release of PTI founder and other incarcerated leaders and women activists of the former ruling party.
In addition, the PTI recorded protest in Quetta, where a large number of PTI workers and leaders took out a rally.
Meanwhile, PTI founding chairman Imran Khan urged the people to break the ‘shackles of slavery’ and stand up to achieve the Haqeeqi Azadi, as freedom has never been gifted on a gold plate. He said that a slave nation has no future, therefore, he is ready to render any sacrifice whatsoever for his nation and for true independence but would not strike a deal with those who kept the nation in chains of slavery.
The PTI founding chairman credited Islam for ending slavery as an institution from the world because Islam prioritised the status and importance of freedom.
However, he said that “king of the jungle was the main stumbling block and impediment in the path to true freedom, who established the worst dictatorship in the country by flouting the Constitution and law of the country”. He said “the king’s stubbornness and ego to run the country according to his will instead of the Constitution and law of the land became a source of destruction of the country’s economy, government system and even democracy and judiciary”. “It is high time, every member of the nation should play his/ her role to stop the ongoing series of destruction of the country,” he urged, adding that they should utilise their strength and resources given by Allah for achieving the true independence of the country. The PTI founding chairman stated that nation should keep in mind that he had been jailed for the last nine months in absolutely bogus, false, fabricated and baseless cases.