Pakistan: Tehreek-e-Insaf To Hold Nationwide Protests Against Election ‘Rigging’ After Eid

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 5 : The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced it will stage a nationwide protest movement and will hold a series of rallies across the country against alleged rigging in the Pakistan general elections held on February 8, The News International reported on Thursday. Announcing a nationwide protest movement against alleged rigging in general elections 2024, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced staging a series of rallies across the country starting from Balochistan after Eid ul Fitr, The News International reported.

Addressing the media in Rawalpindi after meeting PTI founder Imran Khan in Adiala jail on Thursday, party leader Asad Qaiser said the first rally would be held in Pishin district as part of the protest movement and a meeting to review arrangements for the rally would be held at Balochistan National Party Chairman Akhtar Mengal's house on April 12 in Quetta. PTI leader and former information minister Shibli Faraz said the masses gave the PTI a full mandate which was stolen. However, he said, they had to continue their fight in the court.

"We must differentiate between the people possessing Form 45 and Form 47." he said adding that the influx of investment in the country was stopped and brain drain was taking place. On March 20, PTI founder Imran Khan moved the Supreme Court, requesting the formation of a judicial commission to "inquire, audit and examine" the manner and process of the February 8 general elections held in the country, Geo News reported. Imran Khan, who remains incarcerated at the Adiala jail following conviction in multiple cases, has filed the petition in light of the rigging allegations levelled by his party and others in the aftermath of "manipulation and fraud in the election results".

The petition, filed by senior lawyer Hamid Khan on behalf of the PTI founder, urged the apex court to form a judicial commission, consisting of serving SC judges holding no bias towards anyone, to "inquire, audit and examine the manner and process of general elections of 8 February 2024 and the developments that took place thereafter of compiling false and fraudulent results rendering winners into losers and losers into winners." In his plea, Imran Khan said that "all the consequential acts of forming governments at the federal and Punjab levels be immediately suspended" until the result of the judicial commission's probe is made public."

"It is also prayed that all that is required to be done in the best interest of the nation, its electoral mandate and constitutional dispensation may kindly be ordered including requisite orders, directions and reliefs," the plea added, Geo News reported. The government, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (ECP), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Mutahidda Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have all been named respondents in the plea, Geo News reported. According to the petition, the general elections were "openly rigged" with their results "manipulated". "The people allegedly elected and returned to assemblies are be breaching the public trust by exercising the state authority by way of fraud," it added.

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