LHC order a victory for democracy, says PTI

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) provincial organiser Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar  on Wednesday described Lahore High Court’s (LHC’s) decision of suspending the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP’s) notification proscribing  lawmakers from campaigning in the forthcoming by-elections as a victory for democracy. 

The former governor was addressing public meetings in the Garhi Shahu, Mian Mir and Samanabad areas in connection with the NA-122 by-elections. Sarwar said PTI chief Imran Khan would actively campaign for Abdul Aleem Khan after Eid. Sarwar and Khan had rapped the notification earlier in the week and had challenged it at LHC.

Sarwar said the suspension of the notification constituted a victory for the party. He said the PTI had taken a principled stance when it had called the notification undemocratic and a violation of fundamental rights. Sarwar said the party would continue to exercise its democratic right to demonstrate and stage sit-ins till injustice had been eradicated. He said the PTI’s struggle to ensure the formulation of a transparent electoral system in the nation would continue.

The former governor lashed out at political opponents saying they had been slandering party leaders by rapping their personal lives. He said the PTI had become the most popular political party in the country. Sarwar said the PTI had been striving to secure citizens’ rights. He said the time was ripe for every individual to take to the streets to demand justice.

NA-122 hopeful Abdul Aleem Khan said the PTI had demanded that by-elections be organised under the military’s oversight to ensure their transparent conduct. He said it would be impossible to guarantee the free and fair conduct of polls otherwise.

Khan said the PTI had been confronting the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and a hostile state apparatus in the wake of the recent killing of a party man.

Separately, the PTI chief also announced his intention to campaign in the NA-122 by-elections on Wednesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2015.