As Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) faces an intensified wave of disqualifications and arrests, the party’s barmy from the party’s chairman Gohar Ali Khan on Wednesday came hard on the federal government and accused it of elaborating on political oppression and bending democracy’s rules. The government of the National Assembly said Gohar that government’s behavior was "Aggravated by every day that goes"With reference to disqualification of PTI leaders, including opposition leader Omar Ayub, and the arrest of 80-year-old Rehana Dar as the latest in a series of politically motivated actions.
"The injustice that has been done to us has drawn widespread public condemnation," He said, pointing out that PTI legislators had chosen to stay in parliament and not boycott its procedure. "One by one our lawmakers were disqualified," he added and called the order of events a "Systematic targeting" of opposition voices. Gohar, who raised concerns about the case of Sheikh Waqas Akram, said the move to disqualify him had emerged from the parliament itself. "It is your responsibility to run this house in accordance with the Constitution and the rules," he claimed. On the riots on May 9, Gohar repeated, "We condemned all the incident. We requested Chief Justice for a fair trial that those involved should be punished". However, he argued that PTI parliamentarians had only been indicted, not proven guilty and were subjected to trials that violated constitutional norms. "The judiciary treated PTI as a stepchild."
In response, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar defended the legal framework under which PTI leaders had been sentenced in cases on May 9. He emphasized that the legal process had run and that the government had no hand in the judgments.
"Once a case reached the trial, it was the domain of the court to conduct procedures and give judgments," Said the minister. "This is a legal process; Objections can be raised, but the forum to do so is also the court."
Meanwhile, PTI MNA Iqbal Afridi sounded the alarm over the ongoing military operations in tribal areas, especially in Tirah, Bajaur and Waziristan, and accused the state orchestrated what he called a "People’s murder" of tribal people.
"There was direct firing on civilians in Tirah killing six people," he claimed. "Peel off was also done in Bajaur, which resulted in several deaths. This violence also continues in Waziristan."
Afridi also claimed that KP Minister of Chief Ali Amin Gandapur had not supported the proposed military operation during the recent meeting of the Apex Committee, suggesting that the federal government was acting unilaterally. "This whole drama is about access to minerals," He said and claimed that attention to the tribal areas was only revived after PTI’s founder blocked a mineral bill.
"We are homeless, we are suffering and now we are being painted as criminals," said Afridi. "You are hell at sharing us and then you’re talking about Kashmir?"
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry rejected Afridi’s claims and said no surgery was performed against any specific group or region. "These are unfounded and destructive to national unity," he said.
