LAHORE: Unruly PTI workers on Friday attacked and besieged the residence of MNA Wajiha Akram in Lahore soon after she was seen sitting in the Sindh House, Islamabad, to join hands with the opposition against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

PTI’s youth wing workers also threw eggs and stones at the gate and inside the house of Wajiha Akram, whom the PTI had nominated as MNA on a reserved seat.

PM’s Special Advisor on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill had tried to preempt the defections within the party and warned that the PTI supporters would put up posters of the defectors in their respective cities bearing inscription “Traitor”. He said they would also put up garlands of shoes on the posters as a mark of contempt and protest.

“Unprecedented circumstances bring unprecedented reactions,” he said.

Parliamentarian’s husband seeks case against intruders

The highly-charged workers also chanted slogans against the MNA and displayed “Lotas” – a vessel metaphorically used in Pakistan’s politics as an insulting term for people who switch parties and loyalties. The protesters had held placards, clubs and garlands of shoes and chanted slogans calling parliamentarians “traitors”.

The protesters led by PTI Youth Wing’s Punjab president Gulraiz Iqbal demanded that Wajiha Akram should first abandon the party mandate if she wanted to join any other party. They climbed on the wall of the MNA’s residence and chanted slogans attracting passersby at Thokar Niaz Beg area in Lahore.

MNA’s husband Advocate Ahsan Akram has filed an application with the Chuhng, Multan Road, police SHO for a legal action against PTI leaders Gulraiz Iqbal, Tanzeela Imran Khan, Malik Tauqir, Jawad Khalid, Ahsan Bhatti and 30 others who raided their home, threw stones and damaged their property.

Meanwhile, a telephonic conversation went viral wherein a voter of PTI MNA from Faisalabad Raja Riaz expressed resentment over latter’s presence in the Sindh House.

The voter said he (Riaz) was given votes on behalf of Imran Khan. Raja Riaz said the PTI government had not let any of his project get through during the past three and-a-half years. As the voter asked Raja Riaz to resign before joining hands with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, the MNA was heard saying: “I would resign and that too before the no-confidence voting.”

PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry in a video message regretted that the Sindh government was spending public money to purchase “conscience” of the parliamentarians elected on the PTI tickets. He said the PTI would now fight against the turncoats in the field. He said all thieves had united and were making plans to loot this nation yet again.

PTI Lahore president Sheikh Imtiaz Mahmood and other leaders burnt the pictures of the party MNAs who have allegedly shown their inclination to vote against the prime minister.

The PTI workers in Faisalabad carried placards and “lotas” and protested in front of the residence of Raja Riaz as well as on other city roads.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2022