'Biased chief election commissioner': PTI stages country-wide protest outside ECP

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged protests on Tuesday outside Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) offices in various cities against Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, who it claims is “anti-PTI and biased”, Aaj News reported.

On Sunday, the party had announced its intention to hold countrywide protests outside the offices of ECP.

“The chief election commissioner has crossed the limits of dishonesty and partiality,” alleged PTI leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet after the meeting.

Earlier, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had also said his party did not trust the CEC, alleging all his decisions were against the party.

Khan had also said that PTI will file a reference against the CEC, as the commission had displayed “incompetence” by not completing the delimitation of constituencies on time, which delayed early elections.

PTI announces anti-ECP protest plan

Demonstrations were held in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Gujrat and Faisalabad, and other cities today.

In Islamabad, where section 144 has been imposed in the red zone, the protest was attended by PTI leaders including former interior minister Sheikh Rashid and Shibli Faraz.

The leaders criticized the government for placing containers and blocking routes to the ECP office in Islamabad.

In a tweet, Fawad had said that PTI was only staging a "token protest", adding that this "foolish government has closed the entire country".

"What will become of them when we launch a proper movement?" he tweeted.

Meanwhile, police were also deployed outside the ECP office in Karachi. The protest was attended by the Opposition Leader in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh and other party leaders, including Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Aftab Siddiqui, Raja Azhar and Saifur Rehman.

PTI challenges ECP’s delimitation schedule

Last week, the ECP said that the constituencies’ delimitation process for national and provincial assemblies would continue till August 3.

The initial delimitation will be completed by May 24, it added and will be published by May 28. The statement said that appeals on it could be filed between May 29 and June 28.