Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has announced protests across the country on Saturday against what it called widespread rigging in the general elections.
In a recent post on social media platform X, PTI has called for protests against “the unprecedented, massive, brazen rigging in General Elections 2024, where PTI’s win of 180 National Assembly seats and a two-third majority in Parliament, was cut down to half by the illegitimate, fascist regime.”
PTI leader, barrister Saif said that a party delegation met JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman on the instructions of party founder Imran Khan to contact all political parties, which were aggrieved by the irregularities in the conduct of the elections, Dawn reported.
“PTI has announced that we will do a country-wide protest on Saturday and this process will continue because the JUI has also expressed doubts about the elections and their results and rejected them,” Rehman said as per the Dawn report.
Meanwhile, in a message from jail the former Prime Minister called on the US to raise their voice over concerns about the transparency of the general elections saying “America acts like the voice of democracy in the whole world, but both the US and Europe have maintained silence on rigging in the elections in Pakistan,” the country’s Saama TV reported.
Khan’s comments from jail were conveyed by barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Samaa TV said. He accused the US of patronising and imposing dictators and installing corrupt people as rulers.
On Thursday, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby said in a press briefing that the US was “concerned” over reports coming out of Pakistan in terms of intimidation and voter suppression and is watching the situation “very closely.”
On Wednesday, the US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller called for an investigation of rigging allegations in the Pakistan general results held on February 8.
Earlier on February 9, US Congress lawmakers condemned the use of political violence, cell phone service shutdowns and restrictions during the general elections conducted in Parkistan.
