MANSEHRA: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial president Junaid Akbar Khan said on Sunday that the arrest and expulsion of party leaders from Gilgit-Baltistan were unconstitutional and that those responsible should be held accountable under the relevant laws.
“I am a citizen of Pakistan and have the right to travel anywhere in the country to campaign for my party’s candidates in GB. We will never accept pre-poll rigging at any cost,” the PTI MNA told a meeting held in the Siglo area of Upper Kohistan.
Flanked by PTI Kohistan’s president Fazl Allai, general secretary Zia Khankheli and local host Malik Mukhtar, Junaid Akbar said that his party was not being given a level-playing field in the GB elections, while office-bearers of other political parties were being extended protocol and allowed to move freely.
“I was not taken into custody alone by the local administration, but all PTI office-bearers accompanying me to GB were treated the same way and expelled along with me,” he added.
The PTI KP president said that his party firmly believed in democratic norms and electoral rights, adding that keeping one of Pakistan’s former ruling parties away from the democratic process in GB was strongly condemnable.
“The government should avoid creating political chaos in the GB elections and allow people to freely exercise their right to vote and elect a government of their choice in the larger public interest,” the PTI leader said.
Speaking on the occasion, Malik Mukhtar said that PTI should not be singled out for victimisation during the GB electoral process.
“This should be the people’s right to elect a government of their choice, and arrests of political leaders are not the solution to political confrontations, which should instead be decided through elections,” he said.
