Ex-PM Khan’s party launches Pakistan-wide protests over election ‘rigging’

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party will hold nationwide protests today, Saturday, after one of its lawmakers vowed not to let the National Assembly function until those who had benefitted from last month’s purportedly rigged elections continued to be part of the house.
Pakistan’s Feb. 8 national polls were marred by a countrywide shutdown of cellphone networks and delayed results, leading to widespread speculation of election manipulation.
Several political parties, including the PTI of ex-PM Khan, who remains incarcerated on multiple charges since August, have been protesting the election results, which they say were changed in favor of their opponents.
Pakistan’s caretaker administration and election commission have denied the allegations.
“We don’t accept [the legitimacy] of this assembly,” PTI leader Junaid Akbar said during his speech on the floor of the house. “This assembly will not function until [the people] who have usurped the rights of others [through rigging] are driven out of here.”
“Our voters and supporters have not told us to do lawmaking [in this house],” he continued. “They have not told us to tolerate this [situation] silently. We will not stay silent. Until our leader [Imran Khan] is released from prison, there is no question of anyone sitting in the [lawmaker’s] chair with respect and dignity.”
Akbar said the PTI lawmakers had not come to the National Assembly for reconciliation or negotiation.
“What constitution, democracy and parliament are you referring to [when in this house] more than half of the people are those who lost [the Feb. 8 elections],” he added. “What you have done to the constitution, what you have done to this country, you will be held accountable [for that].”
The PTI leader said no one should be under the illusion that his party would allow the National Assembly to function until its members got their rights.
Raoof Hasan, the spokesperson of Khan’s party, also told local news channel Geo TV that the goal of the countrywide protest today was to restore people’s mandate.