QUETTA, KARACHI: Widespread protests erupted across Balochistan and Karachi on Sunday as several political parties rejected the recently announced election results, alleging widespread rigging.
Following hotly contested polls, major parties including the National Party, PPP, JUI-F, BAP, BNP-Mengal, PkMAP, and PkNAP, have staged sit-ins at district returning offices, demanding recounts and challenging the declared outcomes.
Discontentment ran high in Quetta, with protests engulfing major thoroughfares like Sariab Road, Buleli Road, and Anscomb Road. Similar demonstrations raged in Chaman, Chagai, Dalbandin, Loralai, Qila Abdullah, Kharan, and Sibi, effectively shutting down vital national highways in Naseerabad, Jafarabad, Sohbatpur, Kalat, and Nushki.
The protests transcended provincial borders, reaching Karachi, where Jamaat-e-Islami, JUI, and PTI announced demonstrations against claimed election manipulation. JUI plans protests in Sohrab Goth, Quaidabad, and Northern Bypass, while Jamaat-e-Islami mobilizes supporters at Stargate, Korangi, Shahrah Pakistan, UP Mor, Orangi, Hassan Square, Quaidabad, and Nazimabad. The PTI aims to rally outside the Election Commission office.
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Meanwhile, in Islamabad, the capital police has asserted that Section 144 is in force in the city and that legal action will be taken against any illegal assembly of people. “Some people are inciting illegal gatherings around the election commission office and other government institutions. It should be noted that incitement to gather is also a crime,” it said in a tweet on X. while in Rawalpindi, PTI supporters protesting the February 8 election results in Rawalpindi were arrested by police on Sunday after the latter sealed routes leading up to the entrance of the district election commission’s office.
A substantial number of police officers were deployed in the area. The closure of the district office also impacted the road leading to the press club, resulting in journalists encountering challenges in gaining access to the press club.
