PAT candidates being harassed & intimidated: Party leaders

PAT leaders namely Khawaja Amir Farid Koreja, Bashrat Aziz Jaspal and Syed Shahzad Hussain Naqvi have said that the Police is harassing the candidates of the PAT. They said that the armed goons of the PML-N have hindered the movement of the PAT candidate for chairmanship Ibrar Hussain from district Gujrat and are forcing him to withdraw his candidature. They said that we submitted an application to the local police station for provision of security but nothing has been done so far.

The PAT leaders said that their candidates are receiving threats of grave consequences in Gujrat, Okara, Faisalabad and Lahore. They said that the ruling party wants to hijack the electoral results on gun point. They said that two PTI workers were killed in Lahore and dozens of them were tortured, adding that the people are being deprived of their democratic rights on gun point. They said that the Chief Minister wants to throw dust in the eyes of the people by staging facades of notices and promises of quick action. They said that we have asked our workers to remain peaceful and take part in elections in accordance with the democratic norms, but added in the same breath that our peacefulness should not be considered our weakness. They appealed to the ECP to take notice of excesses of the government and ensure peaceful conduct of the polls.

Khawaja Amir Farid said that the police should give protection to the people instead of becoming body guard of the PML-N candidates, adding that IG should play his role to stop the police officers and officials from becoming pawns in the hands of the politicians.