Anti-rigging protest: Police baton charge PTI workers again

Workers prevented from gathering at ECP headquarters.

ISLAMABAD:

Police on Friday swung batons at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers who dodged barriers to reach the Election Commission of Pakistan’s headquarters for their weekly protest against alleged rigging in last year’s elections.

This is the second consecutive Friday that Islamabad’s administration has prevented PTI protesters from assembling at the venue.

PTI chairman Imran Khan had announced in his May 11 rally that his party would stage a protest outside the ECP office every Friday until his party’s demands are accepted.

Earlier, a large number of PTI workers set off from their party’s central office at G-6 and gathered at the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) headquarters in a bid to march towards the ECP office. They were carrying party flags and placards inscribed with anti-government and anti-rigging slogans.

However, a large contingent of Islamabad police armed with sticks blocked access to the road by placing barbed wire and heavy-duty containers.

But when the workers tried to cross the barricades, police baton charged them. However, at that point, some senior party leaders and police officers intervened and defused the situation. The marchers, led by PTI leaders Saifullah Niazi, Dr Shireen Mazari, MNA Nafessa Inayatullah, strongly condemned the attitude of the administration towards political workers.

“This is our democratic right and sabotaging the peaceful protest shows that the government is afraid of PTI’s movement against the rigged election,” Saifullah Niazi told the rally.

The party, according to him, has rejected the rigged election and will continue its struggle to expose the elements behind them. “Without drastic reform in the poll commission and electoral system, democracy has no future in the country,” said Saif.

Dr Mazari demanded that the ECP verify thumbprints in four National Assembly constituencies as a litmus test to check the transparency of the election process.

She also pledged that the use of force against democratic workers would not deter the zeal of PTI supporters who will continue their struggle for a transparent system.

“People no more trust the ECP and there is a need to first abolish and then reconstitute it with financial and administrative autonomy through legislation,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2014.