Amidst a police crackdown, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf organizes national rallies against election “rigging.”

ISLAMABAD: In response to claims of a police crackdown on party supporters in certain areas of Punjab, Imran Khan’s resurrected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party staged national rallies on Friday against suspected vote-rigging and fraud in the by-elections conducted on April 21. This was reported by Geo News.
The party has also called for Imran Khan’s release.

In an attempt to stop the demonstration, Punjab police, according to PTI, have arrested a number of activists and conducted searches at their homes and workplaces, as reported by Geo News.
In spite of this, PTI supporters organized protests in Shahdara and Garden Town, among other Lahore areas.

PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan said that their seats and sound equipment had been taken away before the party’s 28th Foundation Day while addressing reporters in Islamabad.
“Rigging was committed everywhere [at every polling station] to defeat the PTI,” he said.
Law enforcement officials in Faisalabad, according to Geo News, broke up a PTI protest demonstration on Samandari Road and took MNA Changez Khan Kakar, MPA Sheikh Shahid Javed, and a few other people into custody.
PTI politician Hammad Azhar says the Lahore police have arrested at least 12 of his employees, including a 12-year-old youngster, from his constituency in a post on X.
The outgoing governing party thought that the current government had altered the results of Form 47s to the PML-N and PPP’s advantage and had stolen their electoral mandate.
Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Ali Amin Gandapur, has said, “The incumbent government at the Center has been formed after stealing PTI’s 180 seats.”
The Khan-founded party reportedly put pressure on the PML-N regime in an attempt to reclaim their “stolen mandate” as the six-party opposition alliance began their campaign of protest against the government with a rally in Pishin, Baloshitan, where PTI leader Omar Ayub pledged to restore their rights through the “Tehreek Tahafuz Ayin.”
Concurrently, the opposition party conducted widespread demonstrations and sit-ins throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the state in which the PTI is the ruling party.
A sizable protest was staged by PTI employees in Dera Ismail Khan outside the press club. Large-scale protests were organized by the PTI in Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi, and many other provincial towns.
The PTI participated in a protest demonstration on Rashid Minhas Road in Karachi. The event was led by President Haleem Adil Sheikh of the PTI Sindh branch. Sheikh said after her speech at the Char Minar Chowrangi rally that “the nation voted [us] to free the PTI founder.”We are protesting the mandate theft and in favor of Kaptan’s release,” he said.
PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan blasted the Punjab Inspector General for his “cruelties” against his party members at a news conference in the port city.
He said that while the Punjab IG is now victimizing the PTI, previous chief minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi did the same in the past. According to Ayub, the PTI founder, as well as other imprisoned officials and female activists from the previous governing party, were the targets of rallies intended to win their release.
Furthermore, the PTI documented their demonstration in Quetta, where a sizable gathering of PTI officials and workers took place.