Sher Afzal Marwat says will lead Islamabad protest

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is all set to hold nationwide protests against alleged rigging in elections, party’s senior vice president Sher Afzal Marwat said he will lead Saturday’s demonstration from Islamabad’s F9 park to the National Press Club, ARY News reported on Friday.

Talking to journalists, Marwat said that PTI founder Imran Khan wants supporters to come out and protest on Saturday at 11:30am in the same numbers as they came out on February 8.

Sher Afzal Marwat said that the protest would remain peaceful, warning that if the police clamped down it then the movement would continue until “the results are not changed”.

“If the rulers want to inflict violence upon us then let me tell them one thing, I take full responsibility that if anyone wants to spread discord in Islamabad then we will ourselves catch them and hand them over to authorities,” he vowed.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad police – in a statement – said they haven’t received any application from PTI for holding protest. The police said they summoned Rangers’ personnel for any “untoward incident”.

Moreover, the police said demonstrations would not be allowed in high-security zone, warning the people against heading towards F-9 Park.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday called for nationwide demonstrations tomorrow (Saturday) to protest what it calls “brazen rigging” of February 8 general election, ARY News reported.

Uncertainty looms over Pakistan’s political future as none of the major political parties – PML-N, PPP or the PTI-backed independent candidates – secured a simple majority in the National Assembly in the February 8 general elections.

Political stakeholders were making efforts to forge alliances and secure 169 seats in the 336-member lower house of parliament.

PTI-backed Independent candidates consolidated their lead in the general elections 2024 over mainstream political parties, especially in the National and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assemblies, throughout the result announcement process.

According to the results announced so far, independent candidates have managed to win 101 seats. It is worth mentioning that out of these 101 independent candidates, 92 are supported by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf while nine are general independent candidates.

PML-N is in the second position with 75 seats, while the PPP has won 54 seats. The MQM-P won in 17 constituencies, JUI-F in four, PML-Q in three, while IPP and BNP won two seats each.