PTI leader and former federal minister Hammad Azhar on Sunday said that his octogenarian father, Mian Azhar, was arrested by the Punjab police ahead of an election rally in Lahore.
The arrest comes as the PTI is set to hold its first major countrywide power show after the May 9 protests.
In a post on social media platform X, Hammad said his 82-year-old father, a PTI-backed independent candidate contesting for the February 8 elections from the NA-129 constituency, wanted to “lead a rally as per his democratic and constitutional right”.
“Pakistan has today been reduced to a total fascist state with zero human rights or rule of law. One Nawaz Sharif & his daughter calling the shots and ruining the country,” the PTI leader said.
In another post later, Hammad shared a video of his father. “We are in the office and attempts have been made to sabotage our rally, but our spirits are elevated. God willing, we will take out the rally,” Mian Azhar could be heard saying in the clip.
Meanwhile, the PTI termed the arrest as “highly condemnable”. “PTI’s candidates are right now being stopped from conducting peaceful election rallies, while on the other side PML-N/PPP and other parties are free to conduct every political event,” it stated.
The party added that the “continuous policy of raiding homes, businesses of our leadership and workers is only producing damage to Pakistanis and Pakistan alone”.
On the call of founding chairman Imran Khan, ticket holders and workers of the PTI will hold their first countrywide power show, after May 9, today.
Earlier this week, Imran had directed all the ticket holders to come out in the streets and roads across the country today, warning that the tickets of those who fail to hold rallies would be cancelled.
