Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly (PA) and PTI-SIC leader Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar said on Sunday that a fresh crackdown on the PTI ticket holders and workers had been launched in the province, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore with members of the Punjab Assembly Sheikh Imtiaz Mehmood, Farrukh Javed Moon and Abu Zar Salman sitting alongside him, he said that cases were again being registered against the PTI ticket holders. “Wherever our 10 workers gather, they are whisked away by the police,” he lamented.   

“And whenever we approach a deputy commissioner for permission for a rally, he starts making excuses,” he said, adding, “The circumstances have now forced the PTI to go for a resistance movement.”

Dispelling the impression that the facilities provided to PTI founder Imran Khan at the Adiala Jail were as per his stature as a former prime minister, Bhachar said that only three days ago, he had been provided an air-cooler. “Does the government think that by resorting to such tactics it can make Imran capitulate? No certainly not,” he said.

The opposition leader said it was so unfortunate that while on one hand, notices had been issued to the PTI leaders in connection with a tweet, on the other no action was taken against the PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif, Khawaja Asif and Sardar Ayyaz Sadiq for defaming the state institutions on the floor of the National Assembly.

Calling the present government a ‘Tiktoker’, the PTI-SIC leader said it was so powerless that it could not get the petrol price fixed on its own. “The same Tiktoker government is here in Punjab,” Bhachar said, adding that the PTI was now going to hold demonstrations. “Our first protest will be outside the Punjab IGP’s office,” he announced.

The opposition leader urged all RPOs and DPOs not to obey the orders of the IGP since he was breaching the privacy of the PTI workers’ homes.  

He lamented that now the government planned to hire retired judges to decide the appeals filed by PTI candidates against the election results. “This is because serving judges have refused to obey them.”