PTI slams rounding-up of its leaders ahead of elections

Declares Marwat’s arrest outside LHC unconstitutional, demands his release

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Core Committee on Friday strongly condemned the round-up of the party’s officials and leaders before the Feb 8, 2024 elections.

According to a declaration issued after a meeting of the core committee, it declared the arrest of senior central leader Sher Afzal Marwat from outside the Lahore High Court as completely unconstitutional and illegal, demanding his immediate release.

“The ill-treatment meted out to Tehreek-e-Insaf's core committee member and senior legal expert Shoaib Shaheen at the Quetta Airport and preventing him from participating in the convention is also strongly condemned.”

The committee termed the attempts to exclude the PTI from the elections and not allow it to hold peaceful political activities “a serious attack on democracy”.

The meeting laid emphasis on the Election Commission to ensure fair and equal opportunities for all parties to participate in the elections.

The PTI highlighted that decisions or personal actions of an individual had no place in the party and were not encouraged.
“All decisions of the Tehreek-e-Insaf are made in the core committee meetings with detailed consultation and complete consensus.”

It stated that the decisions of the core committee were implemented after the approval and formal approval of founding chairman Imran Khan.

“Any political/advertising campaign launched without the approval of Core Committee and Founder Chairman Imran Khan is neither related to the Tehreek-e-Insaf nor workers can be part of such campaign.”

“Amjad Khan Niazi, Umar Tanveer Butt and other activists who voluntarily surrendered themselves to the law after the reprehensible series of abductions for statements and forced divorces were brutally tortured in the dark of night and forcibly separated from Tehreek-e-Insaf or politics.”

Earlier, the PTI demanded immediate release of the election schedule from the ECP.

There was also a demand to appoint impartial judicial officers as election staff for conducting free, fair, and transparent elections.

It also reiterated the demand for the immediate release of the election symbol of "Bat" to the PTI for conducting the elections transparently and effectively.