Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday that he did not doubt the alleged mistreatment of female PTI supporters and workers after Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s press conference shortly after midnight, Aaj News reported.
“The way they arrested them and threw them in jails. And the news we are receiving of their treatment. We also heard about rape,” Imran said, raising concerns about the alleged mistreatment of his female supporters in jail.
“So when he did the press conference, all my suspicions were cleared.”
Imran said Rana Sanaullah’s press conference after midnight only meant two things: either they’re afraid that the females will tell about their treatment when they’re released from jail, and they (the government) have prepared for that or they’re afraid that something has happened which they can’t control and they’re afraid that if it somehow leaks so, they’ve planned beforehand as if it was some big scheme of the PTI.“
The PTI chief said never have women been treated like this as in the last year from May 25, 2022.
Referring to the alleged mistreatment of female PTI workers and supporters on May 25, 2022, Imran said he was now sure it was part of a “plan to depoliticise women”.
“To somehow keep half of Pakistan’s population outside politics. Looking at this [treatment], their male relatives will be so scared of injustice and mistreatment of women that they’ll tell women to stay at home and not participate in politics.
Imran said there could be no greater injustice than this in any society to keep out 50 per cent of the population outside politics.
Speaking about outgoing party leaders, the PTI chief claimed that those leaving the party had been threatened and pressured to do so.
“Someone [should] ask them what has been done to them. They’ve been threatened that their families and businesses won’t be spared. When has this happened in Pakistan before? Their relatives are arrested … who have no link to anything else.
“No one could have imagined the kinds of things that are happening now.”
He called on the Supreme Court to take notice of this injustice, saying the “entire nation is looking towards you.”
“Till now it seems you are slowly conceding your power and losing your freedom against the powerful. It doesn’t seem to us you are capable of taking a stand against the powerful,” he added.