Ex-PM Khan aides arrested amid Pakistan protests over alleged vote-rigging — party

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters hold portraits of Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan, as they protest against the alleged skewing in Pakistan's national election, in Peshawar on March 10, 2024. Pakistan's election commission blocked lawmakers loyal to jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan from taking a share of parliamentary seats reserved for women and minorities, after a poll marred by rigging claims. (AFP)

• Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf accuses the country’s election regulator of manipulating poll results to benefit his rivals
• While the authorities deny the allegation, the PTI held nationwide demonstrations on Sunday to protest ‘electoral fraud’

ISLAMABAD: Several people, including two top aides of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, were arrested on Sunday as his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party held nationwide demonstrations to protest alleged rigging of last month’s national election in Pakistan, Khan’s party said.
The Feb. 8 national election, which was marred by a countrywide shutdown of mobile phone services, threw up a hung parliament in which no political party emerged with the majority to form its government.
Khan’s PTI party, which forms the largest bloc in the National Assembly with over 90 lawmakers, says it won two-thirds majority but was denied victory by Pakistan’s election regulator, accusing it of manipulating votes. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denies the allegations.
The PTI and multiple other political parties have held protests in several parts of the country over the past few weeks as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) joined forces to elect their joint candidates as prime minister and president.
On Sunday, the PTI said dozens of its members, including Khan aides Latif Khosa and Salman Akram Raja, had been arrested by police during peaceful protests in the eastern Punjab province, calling it a violation of their democratic rights.
“We strongly condemn the arrests of the leaders and workers participating in the peaceful protest against election rigging. Peaceful protest is the fundamental right of every citizen under Article 16 of the Constitution, of which the fake government imposed on the people is completely ignorant,” Raoof Hassan, a PTI spokesperson, told Arab News.
“Behind the arrest of Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders Latif Khosa, Salman Akram Raja, Hafiz Farhat Abbas and hundreds of other workers is the fear of the rejected elements being forcibly imposed on the nation. They are now trying to lodge fake FIRs [first information reports] containing terrorism charges on these leaders who were peacefully protesting.”
The PTI spokesperson called for immediate release of all arrested individuals.
Earlier in the day, PTI leaders mobilized numerous rallies across the country and shared videos that showed party supporters attending demonstrations in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore, Jhelum, Peshawar, Umerkot and Toba Tek Singh cities.
Hassan said that his party would continue its protest movement until the reversal of election results.
“Two elections took place, one on the 8th of February and the other on the 9th of February. The 8th February election was the genuine election, of which we have Forms 45 [results given to candidates or their representatives at polling stations],” Raoof Hassan, a PTI spokesperson, told Arab News.
“This protest movement is going to continue till we have achieved the objective of having either the results reversed or fresh elections called.”
He claimed his party won 181 seats in the 336-member National Assembly, lower house of Pakistan’s parliament, and would keep protesting on a fortnightly basis the alleged manipulation of election results.
Hassan said people came out in large numbers to attend Sunday’s protests despite arrests, particularly in the Punjab province.
“This regime has taken the country hostage. This is an unconstitutional and illegal dispensation which has been put in place just to satisfy some bloated egos,” he said. “This is a grave travesty of the public mandate which we need to have reversed hopefully soon.”
Hassan said his party had developed a three-pronged strategy to address the “injustices,” which included struggling inside assemblies as well as utilizing legal and political options.
“Concurrently, we are going to continue our battle inside the assemblies in a very robust manner and we are also going to use all legal options that we have like going to the election commission, to the tribunals, and of course, to the courts of law,” he said.
Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 on graft charges, faces a slew of cases against him that he says are politically motivated. The former prime minister and his party blame Pakistan’s powerful military, accusing it of keeping him and the PTI from forming their government at the center. Pakistan’s military denies the allegations and says it does not interfere in political affairs.
The protests take place as PM Shehbaz Sharif seeks to bring about political stability to the South Asian country that has been facing overlapping political, security, and economic crises.
Pakistan, which has seen its reserves shrink to historic lows and its currency depreciate significantly against the dollar in the past two years amid staggering inflation, is seeking to negotiate a long-term bailout program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).