KARACHI: Pakistan police on Saturday arrested multiple opposition members ahead of a planned protest by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) opposition parties to mark the first anniversary of the Feb. 8, 2024 national election, which they say were rigged to benefit their opponents.
Pakistan’s general election was marred by a mobile Internet shutdown and unusually delayed results. The polls threw up a hung National Assembly and were followed by weeks of protests by opposition parties over allegations of rigging and vote count fraud.
The caretaker government, which oversaw the electoral exercise, and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), deny the charges, however, the US House of Representatives and several European countries have called on Islamabad to open a probe into the allegations — a move Pakistan has thus far rejected.
Last month, Khan called on PTI leaders and supporters to mark Feb. 8 as a “Black Day” and hold protests across the country to raise their voice against alleged election irregularities. Khan’s announcement was followed by a similar call from JI leader Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman over the “stolen mandate.”
“Disgusting to see Meher Bano Qureshi, her MPA [member of provincial assembly] and workers being arrested for taking part in a peaceful protest [in Multan],” PTI’s Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari said on X, sharing footage of Qureshi and others inside what appeared to be a police van.
The PTI also confirmed the arrest of its member, Khawaja Farooq, and others by police in Azad Kashmir.
Opposition supporters have taken to streets in several cities across the country to register their protest on Saturday evening, following the circulation of video messages by their leaders that urged supporters to mobilize.
Khan’s PTI planned to hold a major protest rally at Minar-e-Pakistan, a historical monument in Lahore that symbolizes the country’s independence, but it was denied official permission by the Punjab provincial administration, led by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
The PML-N administration also imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, banning large gatherings across the province to prevent political demonstrations. The PTI is also expected to hold a rally in Swabi, located in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the party remains in power.
Meanwhile, the JI plans to stage a protest outside the ECP office in Karachi. The party did not win any National Assembly seats in the general elections but secured two provincial seats in the Sindh Assembly and one in the Balochistan Assembly.
PTI candidates contested the Feb. 8 elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls. While they won the most seats, they fell short of the majority needed to form a government, which was instead formed by a coalition of rival political parties led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Police arrest opposition members ahead of protest to mark anniversary of Pakistan national polls
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Police arrest opposition members ahead of protest to mark anniversary of Pakistan national polls
- Pakistan’s general election was marred by a mobile Internet shutdown and unusually delayed results, throwing up a hung parliament
- Ex-PM Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman asked their supporters to mark Feb. 8 as a ‘Black Day’ by holding protests
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
