Police deny any arrest as PTI alleges crackdown on its supporters

A day after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lost its case for its electoral symbol ‘bat’ in the Supreme Court, supporters of the party gathered in the Sea View area on Sunday to affirm their loyalty to the party.

PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat led the march from the Bilawal House to Sea View. He said he saluted the educated people of Karachi for supporting the PTI. The people of Karachi had come out of their homes to express solidarity with the PTI, he added.

He said the PTI’s victory in the elections would not be possible if the people of Karachi did not cooperate. PTI leaders Khurrum Sher Zaman, Aftab Jahangir, Faheem Khan, Raja Azhar, Saeed Afridi, Advocate Ali Palh, Advocate Rehman Mahesar and other leaders were also present on the occasion.

Marwat claimed that there were no cowards in the PTI as it was the party of brave people. He lamented that the party was not being given level playing field as its candidates had been arrested and they were allotted symbols other than its identity ‘bat’.

The right to vote had been taken away from Pakistanis, he said, adding that the PTI would continue to fight its democratic war till the general elections on February 8 and would respond to every tactic employed against it.

He also asked what the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had given to Karachi in its 15-year rule in Sindh. He said water was being sold and lands were being illegally occupied as a result of the continuous rule of the PPP.

Later, the PTI claimed that police initiated action against the party supporters who had taken to the streets and attempted to arrest Marwat while he was attending a PTI event in Mahesar House in Safoora Goth, District East, after the Sea View rally.

PTI leader Raja Azhar also released a video statement in which he condemned the police action. “It is regrettable that heavy police contingents have been deployed to arrest our guest in Sindh. We are being told that there is level playing field for all parties, but today everyone witnessed that the police have surrounded Mahesar House. Several of our workers have been arrested to sabotage our workers' convention,” he said, adding that the PTI workers should be informed about what wrongdoings they had committed for which they were being implicated in terror cases.

Meanwhile, police stated that as Marwat had spoken against the state at the convention near Sea View, they briefly detained three to four persons from the Mahesar House and released them without the registration of any FIR.

Police said that there were rumours that Marwat had been arrested, but he was not taken into custody and he even addressed the meeting at Mahesar House.

A spokesperson for the PTI claimed that the Arambagh police had arrested PTI Saddar Town Senior Vice President Ovais Ajmeri. The spokesperson added that the PTI condemned the action taken by the Sindh police against its workers whose morale would not be diminished by such tactics. However, the police authorities denied claims of any arrests of PTI supporters.