Photo courtesy Twitter
Clashes averted at protest called to chasten dissident PTI lawmakers who have pledged their support to the PMLN for the Punjab chief minister election
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers and supporters on Monday blockaded a hotel in Lahore’s Gulberg locality after appointed Prime Minister Imran Khan urged them to protest the “buying and selling of votes” ahead of the chief minister’s election in the Punjab Assembly.
Responding to questions purportedly raised by members of the public during ‘Aap ka Wazir-e-Azam, Aap kay Saath’ he urged “all Pakistanis” to take to the streets and protest against opposition lawmakers. “I, too, will join a protest outside Red Zone in Islamabad,” he said. “I also want all of you to protest outside the hotel in Lahore,” he exhorted.
Hundreds of PMLN and dissident PTI lawmakers have been staying at the Lahore hotel ahead of the election of the Punjab chief minister, scheduled for Wednesday (tomorrow). The lawmakers claim they are staying together to prevent the PTI and Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) from ‘disappearing’ their members and have warned of protests if there are any attempts to prevent them from voting.
Holding placards and banners, the PTI workers outside the hotel shouted slogans against the lawmakers residing within it. Demanding the PMLN “release” their lawmakers, they even tried to forcibly enter the hotel at one point. The crowd blocked Main Boulevard, Gulberg for nearly an hour-and-a-half, resulting in a massive traffic blockade on one of the major arteries of the Punjab capital.
At one point, as the workers’ protests grew more belligerent, some PMLN lawmakers also came out of their hotel rooms and raised slogans against Imran Khan. Addressing media, MPA Azma Bokhari warned that the opposition was exercising restraint but could respond to the PTI’s “fascist” tactics in kind if it were pushed. “Our workers are just one call away. The PTI needs to be careful and should not indulge in violence,” she added.
Later, addressing a press conference, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz—who is the opposition’s candidate for chief minister—claimed that around 200 MPAs were present in the hotel that the PTI activists were blockading. He claimed that the opposition had learnt of a “conspiracy” to suspend over 40 lawmakers of the PMLN and the PTI to prevent them from voting in the chief minister’s election on Wednesday.
Alleging that the Punjab government had ransacked the offices of Punjab Assembly and was trying to pin the blame on the opposition, he stressed that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had already ruled that no lawmaker could be stopped from casting their vote. “I ask Elahi to compete with us fairly, and if he wins through votes, we will accept it,” he said, and warned Imran Khan against considering Pakistan his personal property and stop indulging in unconstitutional acts.