Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders skipped evening tea to record their “symbolic hunger strike” outside Parliament, demanding the release of party founder Imran Khan and other leaders.
The PTI leaders will stay hungry from 3pm to 7pm.
To register their protest, Qaiser, PTI leaders Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Ali Muhammad Khan and several others were seen sitting outside Parliament today.
Speaking to the media, Qaiser said that the party had started a “local protest” against its victimisation.
“We don’t want to create any [unfavourable] law and order situation in the country,” Qaiser told journalists while sitting outside the parliament.
“But given what is happening to us — the ongoing campaign against us, the pressure on our MNAs, the cases against them and the offers being made to sway their loyalties — what other option do we have?” he said.
“We have, therefore, decided to hold this [protest].”
On the other hand, Barrister Gohar said lawmakers did not need permission to stage a protest on the premises of the Parliament.
“This is our right, we are parliamentarians, and parliamentarians are entitled to conduct themselves however they want within the premises of the Parliament,” he said. “We can express our opinions [here] however we want.”
He said the protest conveyed the party’s position against the “injustice, unfairness, and the illegal and unconstitutional things that are happening [to us].”
He added that PTI parliamentarians were staging a sit-in to uphold the law and the constitution, despite having reservations about some “strangers” occupying parliamentary positions.
