PTI leaders expelled from Gilgit-Baltistan, decry ‘lack of level playing field’
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ISLAMABAD: Four PTI leaders, including the party’s general secretary, were expelled from Gilgit-Baltistan while local leaders were detained on Tuesday. General elections in GB are scheduled for Sunday (June 7), after a four-month delay attributed to harsh winter weather. According to the PTI leadership, the party is not being allowed to campaign in the upcoming elections. “Today, upon entering Gilgit-Baltistan, I, along with Shaukat Basra, Naeem Panjutha, and Zaheer Babar, was stopped by the police within the jurisdiction of Jal Police Station and prevented from proceeding further,” PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja claimed in a post on X. “The DSP informed us that my name had been specifically listed in their records. We and our colleagues from the Insaf Student Federation (ISF) were subsequently surrounded by police vehicles and forcibly escorted out of the province,” claimed the PTI general secretary. Raja said that these actions “represent an attempt to restrict our constitutional right to free movement and political activity”. “Such measures cannot suppress the voice of the people or their democratic aspirations. The nation has already made its decision: it stands with Imran Khan and the cause of freedom,” he added. Talking to Dawn, Raja said that party leaders were travelling to GB by road, as PTI stalwart and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser had earlier not been allowed to travel by air. Similarly, PTI lawmaker Junaid Akbar was also expelled from the region. “When we reached the area of Jal police station in Diamer District, we were stopped by the police,” he alleged. “The police officer was already aware that I was going to Gilgit-Baltistan. They told us that they had orders not to allow us to go there. I asked them who had given the orders, but they said, ‘You can understand who has given us the orders,’” he added. Raja added that the police travelled with the PTI leaders until they reached Babusar Top, at which point they returned. Shauka