‘Our leaders and candidates are being harassed and forced to join the other factions to support the military-backed government’, said Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaaf leadership on Friday, as new crackdowns have been initiated against its leadership since the February 8 elections.
The clash between Khan's PTI and the military establishment comes after the party claimed a landslide victory in Pakistan's general elections on February 8.
“Police arrested winning independent candidates endorsed by the PTI and raided their residences across Punjab,” said party sources.
Arrest warrants have been issued for the PTI's candidates for chief minister in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
Furthermore, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has summoned Imran Khan's sister, Aleema Khan, for inciting public opposition to the state.
Omar Ayub, the PTI's Prime Minister Candidate, was granted pre-arrest bail from a local court on Friday in anticipation of his possible arrest in an unknown case.
Omar claimed that "Aslam Ghumman, a PTI-backed MNA (Member of the National Assembly) from Sialkot, had been kidnapped by unknown people, presumably intelligence agents.”
“Ghumman is being pressured to abandon PTI and join the PML-N. "Condemn this rigging process and enforced disappearances in the strongest terms possible,” Ayub said on X.
In Lahore, police arrested PTI-backed MPA-elect Ahmar Rasheed Bhatti in Raiwind in connection with the May 9 violence. The police's post-election action occurred while the PTI was celebrating its triumph at his outhouse.
Many PTI members burned and vandalized dozens of military and state facilities, including the Army headquarters in Rawalpindi and the ISI building in Faisalabad.
During the unprecedented unrest that erupted following Khan's detention in an alleged corruption case on May 9 last year.
Similarly, Punjab police seized and sealed the factories, mills, and godowns of PTI-backed
MNAs-elect from Gujranwala, Mobeen Arif Jutt, and Ehsanullah Virk.
The authorities continue to use the May 9 violence to persuade the PTI-backed winners of the February 8 elections to shift their allegiances.
Punjab police issued new arrest warrants for PTI leader Aslam Iqbal's May 9 crimes. Iqbal is the PTI's candidate for Punjab chief minister, running against PML-N's Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Khan, the PTI founder, has been in jail since August of last year, and just before the elections, he was sentenced to 31 years in prison in three cases. He is currently facing almost 200 cases.
Meanwhile, the PTI announced that it won 180 National Assembly seats out of a total of 266 in the polls, while the ''mandate thieves PML-N'' received only 17 National Assembly seats across Pakistan.
“Let the world know that according to original, signed, legally valid Form 45s, Imran Khan's PTI has won 180 seats in the National Assembly while Nawaz Sharif's PMLN won only 17 seats,” the PTI said.
PTI officials added that half of PTI's won seats were snatched by the fraudulent regime in the late hours of the night of February 8 and the following days, “through unprecedented, massive, and brazen rigging, in an attempt to cut down PTI's two-thirds majority.”
“Neither the PTI nor the people of Pakistan will accept this blatant violation of their mandate.” "Make no mistake, the will of the people will reign supreme," said the official from PTI.
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