ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday demanded the return of its “stolen mandate” through a nationwide protest against the Feb. 8 general elections’ outcome, which it believes was altered to favor its political opponents.
Last month’s national polls in Pakistan 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 held protest against alleged rigging in different parts of the country since the electoral contest.
Pakistan’s caretaker administration and election oversight body have consistently denied their allegations.
“We voted for Imran Khan and our [state] institutions want to make a man responsible for ruining the country during his 16 months in power the prime minister,” Asad Haider, a protester in Islamabad, told Arab News while referring to the previous tenure of Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharif took over Pakistan’s top political office after Khan was driven out of power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022. He will once again contest for the post as the candidate of the country’s new coalition administration tomorrow.
“This is unfair since it amounts to plundering the right of the people [to choose their representatives],” Haider said, adding the situation was likely to lead to further political and economic instability in Pakistan.
PTI supporters gathered in different cities including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Lahore and Karachi following a protest call from Khan despite torrential rains and hailstorm at many places.
“Our vote is stolen ... We will come here [to protest] in the sun or rain until we get justice,” Mudassir Ahmed, another protester in Islamabad, told Arab News.
Heavy contingents of police and other law enforcement agencies were also deployed in the federal capital and other cities to prevent unrest. The police also arrested some PTI supporters and leaders in the eastern city of Lahore during the protest for blocking the roads and traffic.
Khan’s party condemned the police and state machinery for disrupting the “peaceful” protests.
“The public’s elected majority is turned into a minority by manipulating the clear mandate given to Imran Khan,” the PTI said in a statement.
The party vowed to continue its “peaceful struggle” until the restoration of its mandate.
Ex-PM Khan’s party holds Pakistan-wide protests against election outcome
https://arab.news/j9tw6
Ex-PM Khan’s party holds Pakistan-wide protests against election outcome
- PTI leaders took out protest rallies in all the major cities, including Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, despite heavy rain
- Khan’s party believes its mandate was compromised in the Feb. 8 national polls that were marred by delayed results
Police kill five militants, foil plan to block highway in Pakistan’s southwest
- The militants were killed in an intelligence-based operation in Mastung district of Balochistan
- Search, combing operations are underway to apprehend accomplices of militants who fled the scene
QUETTA: Pakistan’s counterterrorism police on Monday said they had killed five militants, who were planning to block the Quetta–Sibi highway and target security forces, in an intelligence-based operation in the southwestern Balochistan province.
The operation took place in Mastung district when militants affiliated with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were planning to carry out “subversive activities” against security forces and the public, according to a CTD spokesperson.
CTD received credible intelligence that armed BLA militants had taken positions near Mastung’s Dasht area to block the Quetta–Sibi highway and target security forces and civilian traffic. Acting swiftly on the information, CTD teams moved into the area. The militants opened indiscriminate fire upon sighting CTD personnel.
“During the encounter, five unknown terrorists were shot dead, while other accomplices managed to flee, taking advantage of the rugged and mountainous terrain,” the CTD spokesperson said in a statement.
Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a separatist insurgency and witnessed a series of high-profile militant attacks last year. In March, the BLA hijacked a passenger train and the siege killed at least 60 people, while in May, a suicide bombing in Khuzdar killed several children on a school bus.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing their resources to fund development in Punjab. The federal government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan, where China has been building a deep-sea port as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
Officials found seven hand grenades, five sub-machine guns with live rounds and three motorcycles from the scene, according to the CTD statement.
“Search and combing operations are underway to apprehend the fleeing terrorists and dismantle the remaining network,” it read.
