ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) core committee on Monday decided to gear up its political activities across the country and special instructions were issued to PTI Punjab chapter to start preparations for holding workers conventions across the province after successful conventions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The committee members congratulated all the party’s newly-elected officials including the new PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan for their unopposed election in the recently held intra-party elections after their nomination by PTI founding chairman Imran Khan.
The members of the committee assured the newly elected chairman of their full support and cooperation and expressed best wishes for him.
They said that the PTI founding Chairman had dealt a crushing blow to the decades-old hereditary and dynastic political system in the country by nominating an ordinary worker of the party for the top post of the party.
It was said that the PTI core committee had already allotted the post of lifetime chairmanship to the PTI founding chairman Imran Khan.
During the meeting, the forum decided to expedite peaceful political activities across the country and gave approval to hold workers’ convention in Punjab after KP for which instructions were issued to party’s organizational officials to start the preparations for holding workers’ conventions in the largest province of the country at the earliest.
The committee voiced strong concerns over the issue of non-disbursement of the much-needed funds for the forthcoming general elections.
It urged the caretaker government to release the funds without any further delay for holding general elections.
They meeting noted that the entire nation was well-ware of the real objectives and goals of the caretaker government regarding holding free, fair and transparent elections.
It said that the nation would not accept any obstacle in the way of holding elections on the scheduled date due to non-availability of funds or any kind of unconstitutional and illegal excuse.
The forum also expressed strong resentment over taking the returning officers (ROs) from administration instead of the judiciary, adding that it was a plan of pre-poll rigging in all respects.
Therefore, the participants of the meeting underlined that any deliberate or inadvertent attempt to affect the transparency of the elections would be a criminal attack on the national interest as well as democracy.
It said that the nation would neither accept any such attempt nor would it allow election rigging by administrative officers come what may. They demanded that the electoral watchdog should immediately withdraw the decision of appointing administrative officers as ROs and hand over the responsibility of conducting the elections to impartial judicial officers.
The committee strongly protested against non provision of unhindered access to the national and international media to the trial of the PTI founding chairman Imran Khan in jail despite clear the court orders, adding that denying access to media representatives, independent observers or the public to the proceedings of the trial believed the very concept of an open trial.
The forum urged that the caretaker government to shun the practice of disregarding the court orders and give unhindered access to the representatives of domestic and foreign media in next hearing of the case.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023