Fawad Chaudhry to boycott ‘fake’: Feb 8 polls citing political victimisation

ISLAMABAD: Fawad Chaudhry, the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, on Monday announced that he and his group will boycott the upcoming general elections which are set to take place on February 8.

The politician -- who was contesting for the National Assembly seats from Jhelum -- has written a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), lamenting about its performance with regard to the polls.

“The Election Commission has miserably failed in performing its duties,” Fawad wrote in the letter, which his brother and lawyer Faisal Chaudhry shared on X -- formerly Twitter.

Faisal wrote that Fawad and his group have boycotted the “fake elections”. The politician, in the letter, wrote about the political victimisation being meted out to them, announcing that he and his group would do a “complete boycott” of the elections.

Fawad, who filed nomination papers for the NA-60 and NA-61 seats from Jhelum, stated: “I was arrested to withdraw from the election. Our workers were threatened and arrested.” He added: “Our nomination papers were rejected without justification.”

In the letter to the ECP, he also complained about his brother, Faisal Chaudhry, being named his co-accused in the National Accountability Bureau case, despite his papers being cleared to contest elections.

The politico further questioned the meaning of the upcoming elections in a situation where, according to him, there is “no choice”. Fawad has been behind bars since November last year after he was arrested from his residence on corruption charges.

NAB had taken Fawad into custody on December 16 in a corruption case. The anti-graft body’s chairman, Lt-Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed Butt, had signed an arrest warrant for Fawad after which he was taken into custody from Adiala jail -- where he was incarcerated in the fraud case.

On December 20, the NAB got a 10-day physical remand of the former federal minister. After completion of the remand, Fawad was presented before the court on December 30. During the proceedings, NAB prosecutor Irfan Bhola told the court that the former PTI leader was under interrogation and was divulging details related to alleged irregularities. Later, the court extended his physical remand for another six days.