Govt must end political victimization: Imran

-Says police raids, arrests and custodial torture should be halted immediately

From Abid Usman

LAHORE: Former premier and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Wednesday has termed the latest series of police raids, arrests and custodial torture as political victimisation of the opposition leaders.
In a Twitter thread, Imran Khan strongly condemned the repeated police raids on former Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi’s home in Gujrat. He also condemned the ‘arbitrary arrests and ab-ductions’ of his supporters and those who worked with him.
While slamming the incumbent government, Khan said, “This is naked fascism on the part of Im-ported Govt & their Handlers, simply to spread fear in all who support us.”
“Just to remind, arrests and actions against Sharifs and others during our government, were a re-sult of NAB [National Accountability Bureau] cases with over 95% filed before we were voted into power and of the int Panama revelations.
While in custody they were given VIP treatment. But what they wanted was NRO which we refused,” he added. The PTI chief said, “In contrast, they are using all manner of harassment, arrests, custodial torture & abductions purely for political victimisation.”
Khan said, “They know they can’t win any elections, so are trying to beat us down through use of brutal State power. It won’t work. Our resolve only gets stronger.”
In a relevant development today, former MNA and PTI leader Muhammad Amir Dogar was ar-rested in Multan following a clash outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) district office.
PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers clashed with each other outside the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) during the submission of nomination papers for the NA-155 constituency.
In a statement, District Election Commissioner Saleem Akhtar said that political workers have vandalised the office of the electoral watchdog and created chaos.
The election commissioner said that action will be taken against all those responsible for the commotion in the office.
Soon after, police raided the guest house of Amir Dogar, and arrested him along with 12 PTI workers. Moreover, the police also arrested Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders – Sheikh Tariq Rasheed and Malik Anwar, in the case.