Tag: PTI

Journalist and social critic Syed Muzammil Shah’s residence in Lahore came under attack on Tuesday night when two of his neighbours opened aerial fire while attempting to break into his home. 

Muzammil Shah broke the news a day after the attack on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, noting, “Two armed men from a neighbouring house, who seems to have taken offence over my recent political opinions, entered the premises of my house around 5: 30 PM yesterday in my absence.”

Syed Muzammil Shah’s recent video on his YouTube channel was named “Drop scene of Imran Khan’s Final Call,” in which he criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for its aggressive approach towards the federal capital on the “final call” of party founder Imran Khan.

Muzammil had also slammed Prime Minister’s (PM) Shehbaz Sharif-led government over their handling of the former ruling party’s protest march, saying, “They [PTI convoy] were supposed to come from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and you [Mohsin Naqvi] shut down all of Punjab.”

Additionally, Shah, in his vlog, said that both parties, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and PTI have a fascist mindset, placing them in the same category: “It is intra-fascist conflict.”

However, Syed Muzammil Shah’s other video was published recently, along with Muneeb Qadir, but by the time the story was edited, the video was privatised.

Despite two First Information Reports (FIRs) being registered, Shah voiced his frustration, saying, “The main culprit, Naveed, is still at large who openly threatened to gun me down.”

“If I or my family are harmed, the authorities ought to take responsibility,” he added.

Shah, a philosophy enthusiast, has 194 videos on his YouTube channel. He started his career as a newscaster after completing a master’s degree in politics from Forman Christian (FC). Currently, he hosts the talk show ‘Statecraft’ on Express News.

Pakistani journalist fraternity and social critics condemned the incident.

Here are some tweets:

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has found former prime minister (PM) Imran Khan guilty in cases connected to violence on May 9, 2023, cancelling his bail in eight cases.

According to reports, ATC Judge Manzar Ali Gill issued a seven-page written ruling detailing that the prosecution had strong evidence against the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), including audio and visual recordings that confirmed his role in inciting violence.

The court also stated that testimonies from witnesses in the “Zaman Park conspiracy”, where Khan is accused of inciting his supporters, were on record.

As per the prosecution, Khan was involved in orchestrating a plan to disrupt state machinery in the event of his arrest.

Incarcerated Khan’s counsel had argued that his client was already in custody at the time of the incident, but the court rejected this claim, saying that the conspiracy had been planned before his detention.

The ATC also pointed out that the prosecution’s case was not a trivial matter of incitement but involved serious charges, including directing attacks on military installations.

The court said that the PTI founder’s instructions were followed by his supporters, which led to the attacks on state buildings and law enforcement.

The court also noted that on May 11, violence against police officers, among other incidents, occurred on the former premier’s directives.

Days after a viral video showed a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protester being pushed off a container in Islamabad, Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has broken silence on his whereabouts and current condition.

A viral video from PTI’s violent protests in Islamabad showed a man, namely Tahir Abbas Tarar, “offering prayer” atop three containers set up to block access to D-Chowk. The video also showed the man being pushed off by security personnel, falling down as the crowd looked on.

With the video drawing strong reactions from party leaders and the general public alike, netizens also expressed serious concerns over the incident and demanded an official update on Tahir’s current condition.

After widespread criticism aimed at the government and law enforcement, and claims that the victim “fell to his death”, Information Minister Tarar has put an end to speculations.

“Propaganda claimed that a person was offering prayers when he was killed by pushing him [off the containers]. He is a resident of Mandi Bahauddin, and is alive,” the minister said, adding that Tahir had received injuries on his arms and legs.

The info minister also said that the man from the video was “not offering prayers” and was actually “recording a TikTok video”. He, however, did not disclose any further details.

Meanwhile, a man claiming to be Tahir’s brother, Naveed, has said that his family has been “abducted”.

Confirming that Tahir had survived the fall with a fractured arm and leg, Naveed alleged that his family had now “gone missing”.

The same was also claimed by the PTI in a post on its official social media handles.

“His [Tahir’s] family members have now been abducted from their home in the village. There are concerns of coercion to extract statements and suppress the truth with expectations that the public will blindly accept the authorities’ narrative. This incident is just an example of the scale of the ongoing state repression,” PTI said, adding that it was an example of the “brutality” that “unfolded on Nov 26” at D-Chowk.

Tahir is among the dozens of protesters who sustained injuries in violent clashes between the PTI and law enforcement during the former’s three-day protests in and around the federal capital.
Confusion prevails on the total number of casualties at the protest, amid conflicting claims from the camps of both the government and PTI.

A graphic video is being pushed on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) affiliated social media accounts, depicting severely injured people in a hospital, alleging that the victims in the footage are injured PTI protestors in Islamabad.

Fact Check: The graphic video is from 2019 Nankana Sahib’s DHQ Hospital when two rival groups opened fire on each other.

PTI’s official page on Instagram shared the video; however, it was later deleted.  Some PTI supporters are still sharing the video, claiming it to be the victims of an alleged massacre after the security forces launched a crackdown on PTI protestors in Islamabad.

Sabir Shakir posted the video on November 29 with the caption: “This is the floor of a hospital in Islamabad.” The post has garnered more than 116K views till now with more than seven thousand reposts and eleven thousand likes.

Likewise, another social media user re-tweeted the video, writing, “What story are the injured protesters brought to Islamabad hospital after the operation on November 26 and their blood on the floor?”

Another user posted, “This is not Palestine or Gaza, but the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where innocent people are being massacred. Yazid and descendants of Yazid are still present in the world.” 

Another X user wrote, “Every one can see Nawaz, Maryam  @MaryamNSharif‘s. signatures in mass murder of innocent people 3 days hungry thirsty & sleep deprived along with General Asim and Shahbaz face. Why we Pakistan tolerate it ?”

While multiple PTI supporting accounts ran trending hashtags like #گولی_کیوں_چلائی and #IslamabadMassacre.

After PTI began its “final call” towards Islamabad, tensions between law enforcement and protesters ran high, as the federal government deployed the military in Islamabad by invoking Article 245 of the Constitution.

A notification issued by the Interior Ministry said that the army had been authorised to impose a curfew in any locality deemed necessary to maintain law and order.

The opposition leader in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, on Friday demanded a judicial probe into the recent use of force against protesters in the federal capital.

“The chief justice of Pakistan should constitute a fact-finding committee to bring facts to the fore,” said Omar Ayub who is the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member National Assembly from the Haripur district while talking to reporters in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) where he had turned up to secure a transit bail.

The PTI leader said the party leadership shared the grief of the families of those who died in Islamabad. He also said the financial compensation had already been announced by the KP government for the heirs of the deceased and the injured.

Prime Minister (PM) Shahbaz Sharif’s government has decided to tighten the noise around founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s party leaders by filing cases against them.

Shahbaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting on Friday in which it was decided that cases would be lodged against Chief Minister (CM) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Ali Amin Gandapur, and founder PTI Imran Khan’s spouse, Bushra Bibi; both were leading the recent protest march towards the federal capital in which multiple people were killed, including four law-enforcing officers. 

“This is not a political party [PTI] but a fitna [mischief] and a group of terrorists,” Shahbaz Sharif said.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir, Punjab’s Chief Minister (CM) Maryam Nawaz, federal ministers and other security officials attended the meeting.

After a “final call” given by incarcerated Imran Khan, CM KP Ali Amin Gandapur and former First Lady led a convoy from Peshawar to Islamabad, which started on November 24 and ended on November 26 night after security forces cracked down on the demonstrators.

On Tuesday (November 26) night, grand operations were initiated to disperse the opposition’s biggest party protestors, in which multiple casualties were reported and hundreds of protestors were wounded.

Attendees of the meeting told Dawn News that it was also decided in a top-level meeting to register cases against the PTI leaders and workers who were allegedly involved in the killing of security officials during the recent protest march.

A press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) noted, “Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif established a task force under the chairmanship of Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi to identify the people involved in spreading chaos and violence in Islamabad earlier this week and take strict action against them.”

Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Cheema, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar and officials of security departments will also be members of the task force.

Furthermore, it was also decided to modernise the federal capital Safe City project along with strengthening the federal prosecution service. It has been observed that the quality of the project is so poor that its cameras cannot recognise people, particularly at night and when travelling in vehicles.

Previously, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Muhammad Fayyaz submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly secretariat seeking a ban on arch-rivals PTI.

The resolution demands stringent action against former PM Imran Khan’s PTI, labelling the party a “disruptive group” operating under the guise of a political party, and calls for those responsible for the November 24 protests to be brought to justice.