PTI senior leader Asad Qaiser on Saturday claimed he was prevented from reaching the Islamabad airport, resulting in him missing his flight to Skardu in connection with the ongoing election campaign in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
The incident comes just a day after PTI MNA Junaid Akbar and his team were expelled from GB while they were campaigning for the upcoming elections on June 7 .
Qaiser, also the secretary general of Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP), accused the Punjab police of not letting him “enter the Islamabad airport and closing the entry routes of the airport”.
“The Punjab police kept me under detention till the flight took off,” he wrote on X, decrying that not only did he miss his flight, but ordinary citizens were also inconvenienced.
Qaiser termed the incident an instance of undue obstruction in the electoral process and political victimisation. He alleged that efforts were being made to influence the electoral process in GB and that PTI was being hindered from carrying out its election campaign freely.
The PTI leader expressed the hope that the people of GB would reject such tactics and exercise their right to vote freely. He reaffirmed his resolve that, despite all such restrictions, he will continue to participate in the election campaign.
Videos shared by Qaiser showed a long queue of vehicles before the airport’s entry gate. The PTI leader also shared a video of him speaking with what appeared to be Punjab police officials, wearing the force’s olive coloured uniforms, urging them to at least let other passengers continue onward.
Meanwhile, an Islamabad Police official, wishing not to be named, told Dawn that the airport was not under their jurisdiction.
“We have come to know that a PTI leader has alleged that he was not allowed to enter the airport, but Islamabad police has nothing to do with it,” he said.
PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram, while speaking to Dawn , highlighted that sitting federal ministers were participating in the GB election campaign, but PTI leaders were not being allowed to do the same.
“Running an election campaign by sitting ministers is a clear violation of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) code of conduct, but unfortunately, the electoral watchdog is silent,” he said.
Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas termed the alleged obstruction in Qaiser’s travel plans a “blatant violation of democratic values and political freedoms”.
He also pointed out that federal ministers and leaders of other political parties were campaigning in GB, but PTI and TTAP leaders “were constantly being targeted”.
“If leaders of a specific party are deprived of their fundamental democratic right to run election campaigns, then claims of transparent elections and political equality lose their credibility,” Abbas wrote.
He stressed that such moves did not “resolve political differences” but bred further hatred and division in society.
Former NA opposition leader Omar Ayub termed the move a “pre-poll rigging”. tactic.
He claimed that this would be “followed by a polling process that will be an exercise in futility because the returning officers will be forced to issue a bogus Form 47 by the evening, declaring the regime candidates as winners”.
Senior PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique also said he missed his flight to Skardu, accusing the Rawalpindi police of “obstructing all traffic heading to the airport”.
In a post on Facebook, the former minister said he had to depart for Skardu for his party’s election campaign, but he and 12 others missed their flights.
Rafique contended that no “reasonable explanation” was given for the traffic blockade, claiming that Air Blue also closed the boarding gates “before the scheduled time despite the forced traffic closure”.
“Numerous women, children and elderly passengers around us were languishing in the hot weather,” he said, lamenting the extent of “indifference and incompetence”.
Rafique’s PML-N , as well as other parties, including the PPP , are gearing up for the upcoming legislative elections in GB — taking place after a four-month delay .
On Friday, accounts from the PTI suggested MNA Akbar and his companions were also briefly detained by the authorities in GB’s Ghizer district before being “ expelled ”.
However, an official statement by the GB government said that no arrests were made and the leaders had only been expelled for allegedly violating the election code of conduct.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi had claimed the caretaker GB CM, Yar Muhammad, was not responding to his calls. However, the GB government said the caretaker CM was busy with a doctor’s appointment and called back but was told Afridi was not available.
