ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan has said that after the regime change conspiracy, all attempts are being made to oust PTI from the electoral arena through use of the worst state power and coercion under the “Infamous London Plan”, which is evident from rejecting of nomination papers of 873 PTI’s candidates including almost entire prime minister Imran Khan-led cabinet of PTI government.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, PTI Chairman has said that under the series of the state coercive measures, first PTI leadership and workers were implicated in fabricated, frivolous and political motivated cases to keep them in jails.
Barrister Gohar Khan further stated that the nomination papers of PTI’s candidates were snatched and the party candidates proposers and seconders were whisked away to debar them from submitting nomination papers; however, even then PTI outnumbered all political parties in filing nomination papers for the upcoming general elections scheduled to be held on February 8, 2024.
He pointed out that the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) biasness could be judged from the fact that the nomination papers of almost the entire cabinet of PTI government including Prime Minister Imran Khan were rejected on technical and flimsy grounds.
PTI Chairman highlighted that according to the data collected by PTI teams, a total of 873 candidates’ nomination papers were rejected hitherto, which is tantamount to disfranchise around 12.50 crore populace.
Barrister Gohar Khan noted that the process of rejecting the nomination papers was carried out in a very coordinated manner under which the papers of 99 percent of the top party leadership and all the candidates who were known and recognized faces among the people of their concerned constituencies were rejected.
“The data released by the ECP concealed the facts even though more than 90 percent of the rejected papers consisted of PTI candidates. PTI’s ticket holders and covering candidates were also specifically targeted and efforts were made to ensure that no notable candidate emerged in any national or provincial constituency across the country,” he maintained, vowing that the political opponents have no courage even to face PTI under-19 team.
Barrister Gohar Khan has stated that PTI Founding Chairman Imran Khan never said he does not trust Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, adding that no one should say such a thing because PTI and its leadership have full trust of the top judiciary and are confident that the top court will intervene instantly and restore the party’s iconic “bat” symbol.
The PTI chief raised concerns about the alleged mistreatment of PTI workers during the electoral process, urging the judiciary to address these issues promptly.
Barrister Gohar Khan has stated that PTI will continue the process of ticket distribution. “Regardless of the election symbol, candidates will be fielded from all constituencies. We prefer candidates to contest elections under the party symbol “bat” rather than running independently,” he added.
PTI Chairman said that after the regime change conspiracy and all the failed attempts such as the worst spate of extra-constitutional and legal acts of the enforced disappearances, abductions for statements and to minus PTI founder Imran Khan to dismantle and break PTI, sinister attempts were made under the nefarious London Plan to bring back the absconder convicted in mega graft cases from London to give him a clean chit in order to impose on the nation once again and to push PTI out from the election arena altogether.
He recalled that despite the SC’s clear decision of April 4, 2023, the polls was not conducted in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies in the constitutionally mandated timeframe.
PTI Chairman lamented that the illegal and undemocratic practice of defying court’s orders to avoid holding elections within the stipulated 90 days was extended to the Centre, Sindh and Balochistan, adding that even an attempt was made to postpone the elections sine die to deprive over 12.5 crore voters of their basic constitutional right to vote.
He stated that the electoral watchdog has emerged as a front-line facilitator in the state’s unconstitutional acts in the country as the chief election commissioner even flatly refused to meet with the head of state to fix the polls date despite the fact that the President clearly reminded the former of the constitution in this regard.
Barrister Gohar Khan recalled that only after the apex court’s intervention, the ECP announced the date of holding general elections on February 8, 2024 after consultation with the President.
However, he lamented that the electoral body forgot its constitutional duty to hold polls in free, fair and transparent manner and resorted to unconstitutional and unlawful acts to murder the democracy and to plunge the country into deep quagmire through the history worst rigged, non-transparent and controversial elections.
PTI Chairman said that in spite of giving verbal assurances regarding issuance of PTI electoral symbol, the ECP not only unnecessarily delayed the announcement of its decision regarding the intra-party polls but later took a U-turn and accelerated attempts to snatch electoral symbol “bat” from PTI by raising very hypocritical and ridiculous objection over the intraparty elections in order to deprive PTI and millions of Pakistanis of their political identity.
Similarly, Barrister Gohar Khan said that PTI has been completely deprived of a level playing field despite the unequivocal and clear instructions of the top court of the country to provide equal and fair opportunities to PTI like other political parties to freely participate in the elections; whereas the ECP acted like a silent spectator as neither the commission bothered to intervene nor it took any action against these unjust and unconstitutional actions.
“As a first step in the process of conducting elections, the ECP decided to appoint administrative officers as returning officers instead of judicial officers across the country, who have been busy in extra-constitutional and legal measures for the last 20 months to crush PTI,” he added.
Barrister Gohar Khan stated that these officers are accused of usurping basic constitutional rights, registering fake and false cases against PTI’s workers and leaders, besides unlawfully detaining them despite the court orders.
PTI Chairman reminded that during the process of submitting nomination papers, police and secret agency officials were brought into action to snatch nomination papers from PTI candidates, adding that media representatives and social media users brought all such incidents to the fore.
Barrister Gohar Khan stated that when the PTI’s candidates outnumbered all the parties in managing to submit their nomination papers despite open attempts to stop them from filing of nomination papers, the spate of fascism and rigging was initiated, which was evident from despicable and shameful detentions of the proposers and seconders during the scrutiny process of the nomination papers.
During the press conference, videos were played wherein PTI candidates’ nomination papers were snatched and their proposers and seconders were detained.
PTI Chairman even quoted FAFEN’s statement: “The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) urges the ECP to publish the decisions of the Returning Officers (ROs) regarding objections to nomination of candidates and rejections of nomination papers on its website, which will contribute towards a more informed discourse and strengthen electoral transparency.”
Barrister Gohar Khan pointed out that after rejection of the nomination papers, the ROs slowed down the process of issuing decisions to prevent fair reporting on the issue, while the commission hastily released misleading figures to create a false impression.
“PTI’s popularity graph has been between 80 to 90 percent, which is confirmed by all the independent institutions of public opinions that is why the electoral watchdog resorted to used PEMRA to stop conduct surveys and issue notices to various anchors/programmes/channels aimed at suppressing the popularity of PTI,” he added.
Barrister Gohar Khan recalled that in January 1, 2024, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed deeply concerned by the overall deterioration in human rights, which needed urgent attention as the new year unfolds.
“Foremost is the blatant manipulation of the electoral landscape in which one political party among others has been singled out for systematic dismemberment. While HRCP does not condone violence in any form perpetrated by anyone, the state’s response has been disproportionate and unlawful. This has assumed a familiar pattern, including arrests of party workers and supporters, lack of transparency concerning the charges involved, crackdowns on party workers’ right to peaceful assembly, enforced disappearances, obvious signs of pressure on party leaders to resign or exit politics altogether and, most recently, the large-scale rejection of candidates’ nomination papers. Various other parties have also been subjected to similar tactics to varying degrees. At this point, there is little evidence to show that the upcoming elections will be free, fair or credible,” HRCP stated.
He quoted PILDAT: “As Pakistan braces for yet another General Election scheduled to be held on February 08, 2024, Pakistan’s categorisation as an ‘Electoral Autocracy’ confirms that the country merely goes through the motions of holding elections without seriously fulfilling any requirements for these to be free and fair.”
