LAHORE: Civil society activists, organisations as well as opposition leaders on Tuesday condemned the police raids at the homes of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) workers and leaders who were being rounded up apparently to stop the party’s long march.

On Monday night, Punjab Police raided the houses of several PTI leaders, including former energy minister Hammad Azhar, Usman Dar, Fayyazul Hasan Chohan, Malik Waqar Ahmed, Engineer Kashif Kharal, Mazhar Iqbal Gujjar and Babar Awan.

Earlier on Monday night, police also raided the house of retired justice Nasira Iqbal, mother of PTI Senator Walid Iqbal and daughter-in-law of Allama Iqbal.

In a video statement, she said her family members were followers of the law and never violated it and that it was not the right way to enter her house without permission and harass the family. She said these types of violation would not be carried out in a civilised society but in one being ruled without any law.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, in a tweet on Tuesday morning, called the crackdown on the PTI leaders and workers as ‘brutal’ that showed the ‘fascist nature of PML-N when in power’. A peaceful protest was the right of the citizens, he said, adding that the crackdown raised serious questions about the ‘handlers’.

“Already the economy is in a tailspin. I want to warn the crooks and their handlers that these undemocratic and fascist steps will further exacerbate the economic situation and push the country into a state of anarchy,” he cautioned.

The former premier recalled that during his tenure PPP, PML-N and JUI-F’s anti-government marches were never stopped nor did the PTI government carry out any crackdown on their workers.

“This is the difference between democrats and kleptocrats,” he added.

Activist Ammar Ali Jan said, “pre-emptive arrests are a shameful part of our colonial legacy that is being used by the current government to suppress PTI”.

He added that the protest should be allowed in the ambit of law and those who violated the law should be brought to justice.

Lawyer Jibran Nasir shared the video of Nasira Iqbal recounting her ordeal and said: “Imagine what ordinary Pakistanis go through at hands of law enforcement agencies”. He said that PML-N was adopting the ‘same tyrannical ways’ it had accused the PTI of. “Both did so with [the] respective backing of [the] establishment whose political interference continues to be our real problem,” he said.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also expressed concerns at the escalating political polarisation in the country, particularly in Punjab. To have raided the homes of PTI leaders and supporters early this morning, including a raid at the home of retired justice Nasira lqbal — merely because her son is a PTI senator — was deplorable, it said.

The HRCP condemned the murder of a police constable at a PTI activist’s home in Lahore during a similar operation. Any incitement to violence in the name of freedom of assembly or movement is equally intolerable.

More than ever, Pakistan’s people need political negotiation, not toxic narratives, if they are to get through this difficult time, the commission said.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2022