On Sunday, 55 members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were arrested in the Kahna neighborhood of Lahore for conducting a convention without first obtaining permission from the district government.
The officials forcibly entered the venue and conducted a search warrant at the office of the PTI leader who had organized the gathering. According to reports, during the operation, police broke windows and tore down PTI flags and posters, causing damage to the office property.
The PTI published videos documenting the raids that showed police had no valid warrants to conduct searches or make arrests, calling the raids unconstitutional and a violation of citizens’ constitutional rights.
The PTI has strongly condemned the arrests of party members who were in Kahna for a planned workers’ convention, calling the use of force against a lawful political assembly an outrageous defiance of court orders.
The PTI issued a strongly worded statement highlighting the disturbing disparity in treatment, contrasting the treatment of its workers with the preferential VIP protocol provided to what they deemed a “fugitive criminal” on Sunday, referring to the homecoming of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.
The PTI said that the police raided the office of conference organizer Advocate Muhammad Afzaal without probable cause. The raids conducted by the LEAs were allegedly disrespectful to the party’s personal property, they said.
“Nazi tactics”
The party’s accusations of unfair behavior on the part of the LEAs served to draw attention to the striking disparity in treatment. They mentioned how Nawaz’s public rally was given special treatment, while the PTI’s members were denied permits and subjected to violence.
The PTI even went so far as to draw parallels between the current state of affairs and the tactics used by earlier dictatorial regimes. It alleged that Imran Khan and the PTI were subject to the same harsh repression tactics utilized by Adolf Hitler in Germany and by Narendra Modi in India at the present time.
The PTI used photographs to illustrate the discrimination suffered at the hands of the bureaucracy. They displayed instances in which officials seemed to favor Nawaz, the former premier who is currently serving a prison sentence, over the PTI.
The party claimed these events revealed institutional bias, disdain for the rule of law, and an unfair political climate in the run-up to the midterms.
The PTI’s request to hold the rally in constituency NA-123 Kahna was first denied by the district administration, prompting the party to seek redress in the Lahore High Court.
The court, however, ruled that if the PTI was not allowed to organize their rally, then no one should be.
