Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Wednesday wrote a letter to United Nations seeking intervention against the alleged harassment of its leadership and workers and registration of ‘politically motivated’ cases by the federal government. The letter – written to the High Commissioner for Human Rights by the PTI leader and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari – demanded “independent and impartial investigations into these state excesses and human rights violations”. By “state excesses”, the PTI meant the crackdown by the police ahead of the long march on May 25 and the use of tear gas and baton-charge by the police on the day of the march. Mazari also requested the UN official to “take urgent notice of the issues raised as they not only threatened democracy in Pakistan, but also the lives of former PM Khan, his party leadership and intervene on these with the government of Pakistan”. The PTI also asked the UN to intervene to end “harassment of the PTI” members and save them from “political” cases against them.
It also demanded that the government stop censorship of the media as this was a “violation of basic democratic norms and of the ICCPR to which Pakistan is a party”.
It urged the UN to stop the government of Pakistan from “denying the right to peaceful protest through repressive measures”. The letter came a day after PM Shehbaz Sharif formed a committee to investigate the claims made by PTI leaders that they carried weapons during the long march on May 25.
A few days ago, the PTI chief had conceded that some participants of his “Haqeeqi Azadi March” were armed.
The letter said there had been public anger “reflected in huge rallies” after the Imran Khan-led government was ousted through a “regime change scheme”. The letter also shared that the PTI government was replaced by a politician who was “involved in multiple money laundering cases and is out on bail”. The letter stated that the government “backed by the establishment” had taken “repressive measures” against the “Azadi march”. The UN was also told that the federal government began a crackdown on the PTI workers and leaders in Sindh and Punjab that were “supported by the Rangers”.
Talking about the raids by the government, the former minister wrote that the government violated human rights and “used force against unarmed and peaceful civilians in Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad”. Rubber bullets and tear gas were used and the roads and transportation were blocked, said the letter, adding that the law enforcement agencies broke the vehicles of the party workers and attacked them and later registered several cases against them.
