Opposition alliance calls for nationwide protests on election anniversary

By Staff Reporter

LAHORE: The Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), an opposition alliance led by veteran politician Mahmood Khan Achakzai, appealed to citizens across the country on Saturday to take to the streets on February 8, marking the second anniversary of the 2024 general elections, to oppose what it described as fascism, restore the Constitution and safeguard national sovereignty.

“Those playing with the Constitution of Pakistan are a security risk,” Achakzai, chairman of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and head of the TTAP, told journalists at the Lahore Press Club. Flanked by TTAP Vice Chairman Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, Haqooq-i-Khalq Party chief Ammar Ali Jan and former senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, he urged people from all walks of life to join the movement.

“If we do not come out on the roads to stop fascism, restore the Constitution and the country’s sovereignty on Feb 8, we will all be responsible for Pakistan’s downfall,” he warned. The call comes amid longstanding grievances over the February 8, 2024, elections — widely contested by opposition parties as marred by irregularities — and recent constitutional amendments that critics say have weakened judicial independence and parliamentary authority.

The TTAP, which includes the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and other groups, has framed its campaign as a defence of democratic norms against what it calls suppression by powerful institutions. Achakzai accused unnamed “powerful quarters” of blocking the natural process of leadership development through suppression, leading to internal crises. He pointed to the sidelining of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who he said had tried to follow the constitutional path but faced punishment with a 10-year forced exile. He also referenced the stripping of a political party’s election symbol by the courts, an apparent allusion to PTI’s long-running dispute over its cricket-bat symbol.

Expressing hope for reconciliation, Achakzai said he had conveyed — and would continue to convey — to Sharif and the incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan that any future democratic government should honour judges who resisted pressure by resigning rather than compromising. Such judges, he proposed, should be recognised as “Heroes of Democracy” and eventually restored to the privileges they forfeited in defence of the Constitution, the judiciary and the courts.

Allama Nasir Abbas, a prominent Shia cleric and TTAP vice chairman, accused the “powerful” of blocking avenues for reform and denying people the right to protest. “If the powerful block all ways to bring reforms, the people will rise to dismantle the oppressive system,” he warned. He attributed the current crisis to past martial laws under Gen. Ziaul Haq and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as well as what he called an “undeclared martial law” today, all of which he said had abrogated the Constitution.

Later Saturday, a TTAP delegation led by Achakzai and Allama Nasir Abbas visited Minar-i-Pakistan, the monument commemorating the 1940 Lahore Resolution that laid the groundwork for Pakistan’s creation. Authorities permitted the leaders’ entry but barred supporters, who chanted slogans against the Punjab government outside.

At the site, Achakzai renewed the call for February 8 protests against oppression and fascism, to restore the true democracy envisioned in the Lahore Resolution. He reminded that anyone who suspends or alters the Constitution is punishable under Article 6. Allama Nasir Abbas said the visit sent a message that the country belongs to its people, who must save it from oppressors. “The fascists will ultimately be defeated by the people of Pakistan,” he asserted.

Into the night, the leaders toured city streets, urging residents to join the movement, close shops and observe a “wheel-jam” — a traffic-stopping protest — on February 8. They distributed pamphlets, including those prepared by PTI Punjab, in neighbourhoods and residences. The planned February 8 actions, which the TTAP has described as a nationwide shutter-down and wheel-jam strike, follow weeks of street mobilisation, including a caravan from Islamabad to Lahore.