‘Victimisation’ of PTI leaders, supporters: Dossier being sent to global HR bodies: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday said the party and its supporters had been facing illegal arrests, detentions, custodial torture, and victimisation since April last year, against which the party would send a dossier to international human rights organisations.

Speaking at a presser along with Dr Shireen Mazari, he said that gag on media and attacks on freedom of expression; even violation of the dignity and privacy of political opponents has become a norm in the country after the regime change last year.

“These actions have not only breached fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution but also core provisions of seven international human rights conventions that Pakistan has signed and ratified, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture (CAT)”, he added.

He said the party was preparing a dossier as the country continued to face more human rights violations and violence by the government and state on a daily basis.

The PTI’s political activity had been curbed in many cases with violence against peaceful crowds, he said, adding the PTI’s long march, a national protest against an illegitimate federal government, was sabotaged with preemptive arrests of hundreds of party workers in Punjab, Sindh, and Islamabad.

“On 25th May 2022 when the peaceful procession reached Islamabad, it was attacked by police officials resulting in the deaths of two party workers and multiple injuries among a crowd of supporters including women and children,” he added.

Another peaceful rally in Lahore planned for 8th March 2023 was prevented by a colonial-era law that allows local administration to impose a curfew against political assemblies, he said.

He said that party chief Imran Khan narrowly escaped an attempted assassination during a public rally on November 03, 2022, adding the incident left him with bullet wounds that had made it impossible to resume normal mobility for a few months.

“Despite being widely covered by national and international media, the former prime minister could not even get the FIR registered against the individuals he suspected were behind this attempt on his life,” he added.

He said the initial investigation by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) also indicated a well-planned assassination attempt with multiple shooters and subsequent attempts to cover-up the plot.

More recently, Imran Khan’s house in Lahore at Zaman Park was besieged by hundreds of law enforcement officials claiming to serve an arrest warrant issued against him, he said, adding the police used excessive force including tear gas, chemically treated water from water cannons and rubber bullets against his supporters gathered outside, injuring over 150 people including youth, women, elderly citizens, and children.

“Rangers, a federally controlled paramilitary force were then deployed who used live ammunition in an effort to disperse protesters. This turned the residential community housing hundreds of families into a veritable battleground for days,” he added.

He said Imran Khan was not the only victim as senior party leaders and parliamentarians, including Dr Shireen Mazari, Shahbaz Gill, Azam Swati, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Chaudhary Fawad Hussain, and many others were illegally arrested and detained with some of them even facing custodial torture and sexual assault.

“The incumbent government has victimised not only political opponents but also independent journalists who have been critical of the ruling regime,” he added.

He said that certain TV anchors had been kidnapped and assaulted, faced raids in their homes and threatening phone calls, adding others were facing criminal proceedings on sedition charges for unbiased reporting and commentary.

Arshad Sharif, widely believed to be the foremost investigative journalist in Pakistan, was forced into exile in Kenya and later brutally assassinated, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023