ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Talal Chaudhry on Tuesday said that Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will again stage a sit-in outside Supreme Court if it is felt that the elected Prime Minister is going to be disqualified in contempt of court in the Punjab election delay case.

Speaking at a news conference, the PML-N leader said that the PDM’s sit-in which was held on May 15 has only been deferred and it will again be held. “The sit-in yesterday has not come to an end rather it has been deferred till the time if it is felt that any court is attempting to disqualify the elected prime minister, then the ‘court of the people’ will be staged on the same venue [the Supreme Court] and the people will then make their decision,” he warned.

He said that the May 15 gathering on Constitution Avenue was managed on a 48-hour notice, adding that even more people will reach Islamabad when they are given the call. He said that a peaceful and conducive atmosphere is inevitable for holding free and fair elections in the country. He said that holding free, fair, and impartial elections in the prevailing situation is not possible when the PTI and Imran Khan are being “encouraged and given relief”.

The PML-N alleged that the rioters belonging to PTI and Imran Khan are behind the recent incidents of arson and ransacking of public and private properties. “If GHQ is not safe from the armed gangs of PTI, how the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan and ballot boxes could be protected from their hooliganism,” he asked. He demanded exemplary punishment for the alleged rioters of the PTI in accordance with the law.

He also rejected the PTI chairman’s claims that the agencies’ men were behind the vandalism, adding that it was a preplanned scheme under which, according to him, targets were set in the meetings chaired by Imran Khan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023