by Imran Mukhtar in The Nation, Dec 5, 2023
ISLAMABAD – The beleaguered Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday decided to speed up its political activities countrywide and special instructions were issued to the party’s Punjab chapter to start preparations for holding workers’ conventions across the province after such “successful” gatherings in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The PTI Core Committee in a meeting congratulated all the party’s officials including the newly elected Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan for their unopposed election in the recently held intra-party elections after their nomination by founding Chairman Imran Khan.
The forum held out assurance to the newly elected chairman of their full support and cooperation and expressed best wishes for him. The participants 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 a “capable and loyal party worker” for the top post of the party.
The Core Committee said that it had already allotted the post of life-time chairmanship to the PTI founding Chairman Imran Khan.
During the meeting, the forum decided to expedite political activities across the country ahead of February 8 elections and gave approval to hold workers’ convention in Punjab after KP. The instructions were issued to party’s organisational officials to start preparations for holding 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 federal caretaker government to release the funds without any further delay for holding elections.
It made it clear that the entire nation was well-aware of the real objectives and goals of the caretakers regarding holding free, fair and transparent elections. The Core Committee vowed 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 meeting also expressed a 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. The Core Committee underlined that the nation would neither accept any such attempt nor would it allow election rigging by administrative officers come what may.
The meeting 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.
PTI Core 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 court orders. https://www.nation.com.pk/E-Paper/lahore/2023-12-05/page-1/detail-5
