Siddiqui asks PTI to quit assemblies, start protests if 2024 polls rigged

ISLAMABAD: In response to the election rigging allegations by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Senator Irfan Siddiqui challenged the former ruling party’s lawmakers to quit the assemblies and start a protest movement if the 2024 elections were rigged.

“You [PTI lawmakers] are part of this set-up,” said Siddiqui in a statement on Monday, adding: “[…] enjoying perks and privileges [after reaching the parliament] through the same elections.”

His statement came after top leaders of the opposition party urged the judiciary to expedite cases related to rigging in the 2024 nationwide polls and the judiciary-centric 26th Constitutional Amendment besides rejecting the election results, again.

The demands were made at a joint press conference conducted by PTI’s top leaders, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Omar Ayub Khan, Shibli Faraz, and Salman Akram Raja in Islamabad.

Siddiqui was of the view that in principle, election [results] should not be accepted if rigging is alleged, in the same manner that the Pakistan National Alliance (MNA) rejected the 1977 poll results.

The leaders of the Imran Khan-founded party have all the perks and benefits after being elected to the national and provincial assemblies, under the same elections that they claim were rigged and have formed their government in a province, he added.

The senator further said that the PTI lawmakers had signed [on the bill] to raise their salaries — referring to the Members of Parliament Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill 2025, which sailed through the National Assembly with a majority vote earlier this month.

Pointing towards the PTI’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PML-N senator questioned whether the polls [in KP] were organised by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja or “some angels descended from heaven”.

Reacting to the PTI leaders’ claims regarding the isolation of their party founder Imran Khan, Siddiqui said that there was no issue of access to the ex-premier.

Earlier today, Ayub claimed that jail amenities have been withdrawn from Khan which he deserved as the former premier of the country. He also alleged that the PTI founder was kept in isolation by restricting access to him at the [Adiala] jail.

He claimed that the number of meetings held by the PTI founder exceeded those of the thousands of prisoners in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail combined.

The senator added that the PTI was demanding conducting meetings in a lawn or a place where no one could keep an eye on the former premier and their visitors. He added that the PTI should table such demands in accordance with the jail regulations.