By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged a three-hour symbolic hunger strike outside Parliament House on Tuesday, protesting alleged political victimization and demanding the National Assembly speaker’s intervention.
The protest, led by PTI leaders Asad Qaiser, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, and Ali Muhammad Khan, among others, was sparked by recent actions against the party, including raids on its central office and the arrest of its information secretary, Raoof Hasan.
“We don’t want to create any unfavorable law and order situation in the country,” Qaiser told journalists while sitting outside the parliament. “But given what is happening to us – the ongoing campaign against us, the pressure on our MNAs, the cases against them and the offers being made to sway their loyalties – what other option do we have?” “We have, therefore, decided to hold this protest.”
Barrister Gohar emphasized that lawmakers have the right to protest within Parliament premises. “This is our right, we are parliamentarians, and parliamentarians are entitled to conduct themselves however they want within the premises of the Parliament,” he said. “We can express our opinions however we want.”
Gohar added that the protest conveyed the party’s position against the “injustice, unfairness, and the illegal and unconstitutional things that are happening to us.”
The party is protesting against the political victimization of its members, particularly former premier Imran Khan, who has been incarcerated. “The way Imran has been kept in jail, the way Bushra Bibi is being arrested again and again in one case or the other, the way Imran’s bails are refused, the way PTI Central Secretariat was attacked,” Gohar said.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub said the camp was set up to show solidarity with Khan and protest against three things: the incarceration of Khan, Bibi, and PTI workers; inflation; and the disruption of peace in the country.
The protest comes after the PTI’s central secretariat was sealed by the authorities earlier on Tuesday, citing “lack of fire and life safety arrangements.” The party’s information secretary Hasan was arrested a day earlier for alleged involvement in running anti-Pakistan propaganda.
The PTI has faced a series of setbacks in recent days, including the arrest of party workers and the sealing of its central office. The party has announced daily protests from 3-6 pm to continue their demonstration against the government’s actions.
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