PTI to raise ‘political victimisation’ issue globally

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday announced it would raise the issue of cases filed against its leadership and the arrests of workers at the international level.

Speaking at a news conference, senior PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari said that the party had prepared a document chronicling the “human rights violations” of the PTI supporters from April 10, 2022 to March 21, 2023.

“These documents consist of three parts,” Mazari told the reporters. “The first section mentions the ‘political exploitation’ of the PTI and its allies, including the Zaman Park [Lahore] operation,” she added.

“Apart from this, the attitude of the government towards the opponents and the murderous attack on Imran Khan and political restrictions are mentioned. The document also mentions the cases registered against the PTI chairman and the party leadership.”

In the second part, the former human rights minister said, the cases of curbs on freedom of expression and silencing of journalists had been highlighted, besides the mentioning of targeting of opponents through the media.

“In the third part, we have also included the issue of audio and video leaks. Because the question arises as to who recorded the telephone line of the prime minister and what were the motives behind it while it is a clear violation of the law,” she continued.

Mazari said that the document also contained the constitutional clauses so that the world “can know how the government is violating” the country's laws as well as the human and fundamental rights.

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“Under Article 13 [of the Constitution], no case can be filed twice but the government is using this as a strategy against us. We have mentioned the violations of the seven [international] human rights conventions, to which Pakistan was a signatory.

Mazari charged that “now our social media workers” were also being targeted. She pointed out that party activist Azhar Mashwani had gone missing for five days, but “no one is accepting the responsibility or claiming his arrest”.

On the occasion, senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry highlighted the arrest of PTI supporter Hassaan Niazi. Hassaan, he said was a barrister and “it would have been better if he had stayed out”, he said. “Do the Pakistanis have no rights?”

He told reporters that 15 first information reports (FIRs) were registered against the PTI chairman in a single day, while 1,060 party supporters were arrested till March 21. “We are compiling the list of 1,100 more arrests.”