PESHAWAR: Leaders and workers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Friday staged rallies and distributed sweets in different parts of the province to celebrate the Supreme Court judgment declaring the party eligible for the seats reserved for women and minorities in the parliament.

Celebratory rallies were staged outside the Peshawar Press Club and in Peshtakara tehsil of the provincial capital.

PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa additional general secretary Irfan Saleem and Insaf Lawyers’ Forum leader Malak Shahab Advocate led the rally staged outside the press club.

The jubilant PTI workers also rallied on different roads of the provincial capital.

Say decision to help strengthen democracy in country

The participants chanted full-throated slogans in favour of PTI’s founding chairman Imran Khan as well as judges of the apex court. They were also holding portrait of their incarcerated leader and placards with different slogans.

The PTI workers also distributed sweets.

Addressing the rally, Irfan Saleem lauded the judges of the apex court for ‘upholding’ the law and Constitution of the country.

He said that their leader Imran Khan and workers of PTI across the country would make all-out efforts for the supremacy of the Constitution.

At the Peshtakara rally, the PTI activists declared the apex court judgment as historic, which would help in ‘strengthening’ democracy in the country.

The rally was led by PTI Peshtakara tehsil president Khursheed Alam.

Addressing the rally, he said in the leadership of Imran Khan they would continue their struggle for the ‘Haqeeqi Azadi’ (real independence) of Pakistan.

“There will be problems and issues in the struggle for the independence, but we will face them all patiently,” he said.

In Lower Chitral district, PTI workers gathered at the old PIA Chowk in the Chitral Town, where they distributed sweets to express their happiness over the apex court verdict in the reserved seats case.

In his speech on this occasion, PTI Lower Chitral general secretary Fakhar Azam said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan judges showed exemplary courage in the judgment. He said that the verdict had established the ‘supremacy’ of the Constitution.

Mr Azam said that the judgment ‘upheld’ the rule of law in the country and would go a long way in charting out the future direction of the country. “This judgment has shown us the way that if the country will be run under the whims of the establishment or the rule of law,” he said.

Besides, PTI workers in Upper Chitral also gathered at the district headquarters, Booni, and distributed sweets to express their joy over the verdict.

In Mardan, minister for food Zahir Shah Toru while giving his reaction on the verdict of the Supreme Court regarding the reserved seats, called the judgment a ‘victory’ for the Constitution, law, democracy and justice, and demanded that the chief election commissioner and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan should immediately resign after this decision.

In a statement, the provincial minister said that the judgment had proved the ‘partiality’ of the election commission.

Mr Toru also emphasised that it had been proved that the election commission had ‘wrongfully’ distributed the seats of PTI among other parties.

He also said that today was a big day for PTI, and it had been proved that ‘PTI was an ideology that no one could defeat’.

He said that soon PTI leader Imran Khan would be among his workers.

The food minister also insisted that Imran was the only solution to the country’s economic and political issues. He asked the PTI workers to remain united.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur welcomed the apex court decision on the reserved seats, and congratulated his cabinet members, party leaders and workers.

Mr Gandapur said that the party had had taken a principled stand on the issue of specific seats, according to a statement issued from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Friday.

The chief minister, while speaking during the cabinet meeting, said that the apex court’s decision proved their stand right.

He said that reserved seats were their right and they got their right. He added that due to non-availability of specific seats, PTI faced difficulties in the assemblies. He said that they continued to work as a team for the rights of people of the province.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2024