PTI being ousted under ‘London Plan’: Gohar

ISLAMABAD: PTI senior leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan Thursday said after the regime change ‘conspiracy’, attempts were afoot to oust his party from the electoral race under what he called the infamous ‘London Plan’ and it was evident from the rejection of 873 nomination papers of the party candidates.

“Through use of the worst state power and coercion under the infamous ‘London Plan’, the nomination papers of 873 PTI candidates, including almost entire prime minister Imran Khan-led cabinet of PTI government, were rejected,” he said while speaking to reporters here.

Gohar claimed that under the state coercive measures, first the PTI leadership and workers were implicated in fabricated, frivolous and political motivated cases to keep them in jails.

He pointed out that the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) bias could be judged from the fact that the nomination papers of almost the entire cabinet of PTI government, including Imran Khan, were rejected on technical and flimsy grounds.

The PTI ex-chairman noted that according to the data collected by PTI teams, a total of 873 candidates’ nomination papers had been rejected so far, which amounted to disfranchising around 12.50 crore populace.

“The process of rejecting the nomination papers was carried out in a very coordinated manner under which the papers of 99 percent of the top party leadership and all the candidates who were known and recognized faces among the people of their concerned constituencies were rejected,” he noted.

Gohar clarified that Imran Khan never said he did not trust Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa, adding that no one should say such a thing because the PTI and its leadership had full trust in the top judiciary and were confident that the top court will intervene instantly and restore the party’s iconic ‘bat’ symbol.

He raised concerns about the alleged mistreatment of PTI workers during the electoral process, urging the judiciary to address these issues promptly.

He alleged that the electoral body had emerged as a front-line facilitator in the state’s unconstitutional acts in the country as the chief election commissioner even flatly refused to meet the head of state to fix the polls date despite the fact that the president had clearly reminded the former of the constitution in this regard.

Gohar recalled that only after the apex court’s intervention, the ECP announced the date of holding the general elections on February 8, 2024 after consultation with the president.

He said that PTI had been completely deprived of a level playing field despite unequivocal and clear instructions of the top court to provide equal and fair opportunities to the PTI like the other political parties to freely participate in the elections, whereas the ECP acted like a silent spectator as neither the Commission bothered to intervene nor it took any action against these unjust and unconstitutional actions.

“As a first step in the process of conducting elections, the ECP decided to appoint administrative officers as returning officers instead of judicial officers across the country, who have been busy in extra-constitutional and legal measures for the last 20 months to crush PTI,” he charged.

Gohar said these officers were accused of usurping the basic constitutional rights, registering fake and false cases against the PTI’s workers and leaders, besides unlawfully detaining them despite the court orders.

He ‘reminded’ that during the process of submitting nomination papers, police and secret agency officials were brought into action to snatch nomination papers from PTI candidates, adding that media representatives and social media users brought all such incidents to the fore.

After his news conference, an interesting situation developed when PTI senior leader Sher Afzal Marwat came for a presser but Gohar tried to bar him from doing so.

Adamant on interacting with the media, Marwat insisted he would talk to the media, as he had also met the party founder.

Marwat then explained that he had just got back after meeting Imran Khan adding that whatever he was saying should be considered as the narrative of Khan Sahib and PTI.

He claimed that the reference against Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa was filed by General Bajwa and General Faiz. He also said the founder chairman did not expect justice being done in the presence of CJP Qazi Faez Isa.

However, immediately after this, a spokesperson for PTI said only the statements posted on the PTI’s official account reflected the party’s position or policy and not the statements made/issued by individuals in their personal capacity.