PTI goes on 'hunger strike against persecution'

PTI top brass staged a ‘symbolic hunger strike’ outside Parliament, demanding the National Assembly speaker step in to halt ‘actions against the party and its leaders’.

PTI chairman Barrister Gohar, Omar Ayub, Asad Qaiser, Shibli Faraz, Muhammad Khan and other leaders led the strike to register their protest against ‘victimisation and political persecution’.

Qaiser said the party started a “local protest” against its victimisation.

“We don’t want to create any unfavourable law and order situation in the country,” Qaiser told journalists while sitting outside the parliament.

“But given what is happening to us — the ongoing campaign against us, the pressure on our MNAs, the cases against them and the offers being made to sway their loyalties — what other option do we have?” he said.

“We have, therefore, decided to hold this protest.”  Barrister Gohar said lawmakers did not need permission to stage a protest on Parliament premises.

“This is our right, we are parliamentarians, and parliamentarians are entitled to conduct themselves however they want within the premises of the Parliament,” he said. “We can express our opinions here however we want.”

He said the protest conveyed the party’s position against the “injustice, unfairness, and the illegal and unconstitutional things that are happening [to us].”

He added that PTI parliamentarians were staging a sit-in to uphold the law and the constitution, despite having reservations about some “strangers” occupying parliamentary positions.

Meanwhile, Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Shabbir granted the Federal Investigation Agency a two-day physical remand of PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan and other arrested PTI leaders to “facilitate” the probe.

Hasan was apprehended by the Islamabad police as the interior ministry accused the party of peddling anti-state propaganda. The magistrate ordered the suspects’ appearance before the court on Thursday.

Gohar Ali Khan said that the hunger strike will be observed daily till 8pm as a token protest against "injustice" and for the PTI founder's release and the supremacy of the parliament.

He added that he conveyed his party’s reservations to National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq over "illegal and unconstitutional actions".

He said that his party raised the voice for the PTI lawmakers and their families who were being picked up.

" The PTI founder and his wife have been imprisoned for no reason. This camp will continue till the release of the PTI founder." Gohar strongly condemned the sealing of the party’s secretariat in the federal capital.

The Islamabad administration sealed the PTI's central office over ‘lack of fire and life safety arrangements’.

The PTI secretariat was sealed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) two months ago during an anti-encroachment operation in which a portion of the party's central office was demolished. However, the party office reopened following the directives of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Omar Ayub said that the token hunger strike was being observed for the release of leaders and workers.