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.
