ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan on Monday alleged that violation of human rights was at its peak in Pakistan, announcing that police would be summoned in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

He also claimed that Bushra Bibi, wife of PTI’s founding chairman Imran Khan, was confined to a small room in Banigala. He termed the president’s election from an incomplete house unconstitutional and urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice of the situation.

Addressing a news conference along with PTI’s candidates for Islamabad Advocate Shoaib Shaheen, Advocate Ali Bukhari and Aamir Mughal, Mr Ayub said that “PDM-1 targeted PTI and Imran Khan” and then “PDM-1’s ancillary government”, which was the caretaker government, also continued the same policy.

“During elections Form-45s were changed and PTI, which had won 180 seats in the National Assembly, was deprived of almost 50 per cent [of its] seats,” he said.

Says Bushra Bibi confined to one small room; police to be summoned before Public Accounts Committee

He pointed out that prices of edible items and utility bills had been increasing for the last two years, and warned that the prices would further rise in the coming days. He also claimed that since the houses in the Centre and Punjab were not complete, the prime minister and the chief minister of Punjab were illegal.

While commenting on the protests held on March 10, Mr Ayub said that in Punjab, first information reports (FIRs) under the sections of terrorism were registered to suppress their voice. He criticised Punjab police for detaining PTI senior leaders Salman Akram Raja and Latif Khosa.

He said that Islamabad police also registered cases against Advocate Shaheen, Mr Mughal, and Mr Bukhari, who contested elections from the federal capital. He asserted that Islamabad police were involved in the worst human rights violations, alleging that they were dacoits in police uniform.

Mr Ayub accused IGP Islamabad Dr Akbar Nasir Khan, SSP Operations Malik Jamal Zafar, and District Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon of violating human rights and committing torture against PTI workers.

He vowed that the police would be held accountable for their “transgressions and human rights abuses”, adding that the party would conduct an audit of their accounts by summoning them to PAC, the privileges committees, human rights committees and the interior committee.

“We will see if, during this period, they fulfilled their primary duty of protecting the public,” he added. However, Mr Ayub stated that instead of fulfilling their primary duty and working against dacoits and crimes, they had only one mission: to crush the PTI.

Similarly, he added, the KP government would conduct an audit of the provincial police’s performance. “We will check their audit paras and performance; the abuses they committed against the people of PTI.”

About the IMF loan programme, Omar feared that the “illegitimate and unconstitutional” government would waste the loan taken from the IMF because the current government neither has the legitimacy, guts, nor the moral power to make much-needed tough and correct decisions to appropriately utilise the fund, which was taken as a last resort to fix the economy.

Talking about President Asif Ali Zardari’s oath, the PTI secretary general stated that the presidential election was illegal because he was elected by an incomplete house.

He lamented that the former first lady, Ms Bushra, was confined to a small room, adding that her meal issues have not yet been resolved. He made it clear that Ms Bushra should not be viewed as Imran Khan’s weakness; rather, she was his strength, and Ms Bushra was not being given the constitutionally and legally entitled facilities. He said that she should be given all facilities.

Mr Ayub vowed that the PTI’s topmost priority was to ensure the earliest release of its leadership, including Mr Khan, Ms Bushra, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Pervez Elahi.

Meanwhile, the PTI spokesperson has rejected the newly sworn-in federal cabinet, stating that the cabinet is “fake and unconstitutional” because it is based on a “stolen mandate”. He noted that the inclusion of people like Mohsin Naqvi in the federal cabinet puts a stamp on the “biased and unconstitutional” role of the caretaker government and the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Core committee meeting

The core committee of PTI on Monday decided to observe March 15 as a day to cri­ticise Islamophobia and also anno­u­n­ced plans to celebrate Pakistan Day on March 23.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2024