QUETTA: Nationalist parties in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan on Sunday choked key highways leading from the provincial capital of Quetta to the rest of the country to protest what they called “brazen rigging” and “manipulation” of results of Feb. 8 national election.
Last week’s polls witnessed attacks by militants in the country’s southwest and northwest, a nationwide outage of mobile phone networks, followed by prolonged delays in the release of constituency results by election officials. Members and supporters of multiple nationalist parties have been camped outside the Quetta deputy commissioner office for the last 10 days, alleging that results of polls in their constituencies had been changed during the counting process.
A coalition of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), National Party (NP) and Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) gave a call for a wheel-jam strike across the province on Sunday, after which protesters blocked major highways for more than eight hours and suspended traffic in Quetta, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Kuchlak, Zhob, Loralai, Chaman, Turbat, Gwadar and Kharan areas.
“BNP-Mengal blocked a key highway at Dasht, National Party was protesting at the Quetta-Karachi highway and PkMAP’s supporters were sitting at the Quetta-Loralai highway against the brazen rigging in the election,” Ghulam Nabi Marri, a BNP-M member, told Arab News.
Footage seen by Arab News showed dozens of vehicles, including ambulances and passenger buses, stranded for hours on highways across the province, causing difficulties for passengers.
Saeed Ahmed, a passenger bus driver who traveled to Quetta from the eastern city of Lahore, said he reached the southwestern city after a 12-hour delay because of a blockade of the Quetta-Lahore highway by protesters in Khanozai area.
“More than a dozen passengers in my bus faced immense difficulties due to the road blockade,” Ahmed told Arab News.
Marri said his party’s supporters had blocked the Quetta-Sukkur highway in Dasht, but opened it upon the request of travelers.
Jan Achakzai, the provincial caretaker information minister, said the politicians defeated in the election had been “rejected” by the people of Balochistan.
“Most of the highways and train service in Balochistan remained open because overall, people don’t like the politics of punishing them for the defeat of candidates,” he said.
Nationalist parties choke highways in Pakistan’s southwest to protest alleged rigging of Feb. 8 election
https://arab.news/4vjds
Nationalist parties choke highways in Pakistan’s southwest to protest alleged rigging of Feb. 8 election
- Members and supporters of Baloch, Pashtun and Hazara parties have been protesting outside Quetta deputy commissioner’s office for 10 days
- A coalition of these parties gave a call for a wheel-jam strike in the province on Sunday, after which supporters blocked highways for several hours
Pakistan opposition rallies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to demand release of Imran Khan
- PTI-led gathering calls the former PM a national hero and demands the release of all political prisoners
- Government says the opposition failed to draw a large crowd and accuses PTI of damaging its own politics
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party demanded the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan at a rally in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, describing him as a national hero who continues to command public support.
The gathering came days after a rare and strongly worded briefing by the military’s media chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, who dismissed Khan as “narcissistic” and “mentally ill” on Friday while responding to the former premier’s allegations that Pakistan’s chief of defense forces was responsible for undermining the constitution and rule of law.
He said that Khan was promoting an anti-state narrative which had become a national security threat.
The participants of the rally called for “civilian supremacy” and said elected representatives should be treated with respect.
“We, the people of Pakistan, regard Imran Khan as a national hero and the country’s genuinely elected prime minister, chosen by the public in the February 8, 2024 vote,” said a resolution presented at the rally in Peshawar. “We categorically reject and strongly condemn the notion that he or his colleagues pose any kind of threat to national security.”
“We demand immediate justice for Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi and all political prisoners, and call for their prompt release,” it added, referring to Khan’s wife who is also in prison. “No restrictions should be placed on Imran Khan’s meetings with his family, lawyers or political associates.”
Addressing the gathering, Sohail Afridi, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, denied his administration was not serious about security issues amid increased militant activity. However, he maintained the people of his province had endured the worst of Pakistan’s conflict with militancy and urged a rethinking of long-running security policies.
The resolution asked the federal government to restore bilateral trade and diplomatic channels with Afghanistan, saying improved cross-border ties were essential for the economic stability of the region.
The trade between the two neighbors has suffered as Pakistan accuses the Taliban administration in Kabul of sheltering and facilitating armed groups that it says launch cross-border attacks to target its civilians and security forces. Afghan officials deny the claim.
The two countries have also had deadly border clashes in recent months that have killed dozens of people on both sides.
Some participants of the rally emphasized the restoration of democratic freedoms, judicial independence and space for political reconciliation, calling them necessary to stabilize the country after years of political confrontation.
Reacting to the opposition rally, Information Minister Attaullah Tarrar said the PTI and its allies could not gather enough people.
“In trying to build an anti-army narrative, they have ruined their own politics,” he said, adding that the rally’s reaction to the military’s media chief’s statement reflected “how deeply it had stung.”
“There was neither any argument nor any real response,” he added, referring to what was said by the participants of the rally.
