LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Punjab says the party leaders and workers’ vigils of solidarity outside courts have transformed into a full-scale response after the “judicial farce” displayed through the rejection of Imran Khan’s bail applications.

The PTI says neither injustice will be tolerated, nor the party founder can be politically erased through “manufactured legal battles”.

It says the rejection of bail has not dampened the spirit of people; instead, their struggle has spread across cities, districts and tehsils in the province.

PTI Punjab chief organiser Aliya Hamza Malik says the party leaders, ticket-holders and supporters have come in strength from Lahore’s Mall Road to the streets of Mandi Bahauddin, loudly rejecting the “minus one” agenda being forced through judicial manipulation.

Party ‘not surprised’ by the SC overturning the July 2024 verdict on reserved seats

She said the protests were held across the province following the denial of bail in the “politically motivated” May 9 cases, lambasting the judiciary for “becoming a political tool”.

At a party rally taken out from The Mall to Zaman Park, PTI provincial leader Shayan Bashir said, “This is not justice, it’s a sham [verdict] engineered by a desperate regime afraid of losing power. They know they cannot minus Imran Khan, so they are abusing the courts to crush the people’s will. We will never back down!”

Ms Malik said Imran Khan had become the people’s voice and any attempt to silence him was actually an attempt to silence the public itself.

She said the PTI would not accept “engineered rulings” aimed at removing one leader having genuine public mandate from the political arena.

She added that the protest was a declaration rejecting the minus-Imran agenda.

Meanwhile, commenting on the Supreme Court’s recent decision, which overturned its July 2024 verdict granting reserved seats to PTI, Mr Bashir said he was not surprised by the verdict, but the party and its lawyers fought hard, standing tall for the Constitution, the law, and the people until the very end.

“Imran Khan’s message is loud and clear: We will keep fighting for the rule of law,” he added.

Meanwhile, PTI information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram says agriculture, the backbone of our economy, is collapsing under the weight of mismanagement, inflation, and government apathy.

In a statement on Friday, Mr Akram said farmers across the country were facing an unprecedented economic, environmental, and policy-driven crisis and the recently-announced budget had provided no real relief to the agriculture sector, exposing the government’s anti-farmer priorities.

Mr Akram, who is also chief organiser of the party’s Kissan Wing, said prices of fertilizer, seeds, diesel, electricity, and pesticides had skyrocketed, while crop rates failed to even cover production costs.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2025