ISLAMABAD: Dema­nd­ing that the government allow the jailed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) fou­n­der Imran Khan to meet his sisters and party leaders, the opposition alliance warned the authorities on Friday of countrywide protests if the government did not mend its ways.

“We have stopped Sindhis, Baloch, Pashtuns, and Punjabis from taking to the streets against the government and its policies; otherwise, they would come out and create problems for the rulers,” said Pakhtu­nkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) President Meh­mood Achakzai during a joint press conference with other opposition leaders outside Parliament House.

He said the government had turned parliament into a rubber stamp and that National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq was taking dictation from elsewhere. He said people were being killed in the tribal areas, yet the NA speaker did not allow the opposition to speak on this grave issue.

He questioned why Imran Khan was kept in jail and why he was not being allowed to meet his sisters and party leaders. “The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is sitting outside Adiala Jail, but no one is paying any heed to his request to meet the PTI founder,” he said.

Democracy buried

Speaking on the occasion, PTI leader Asad Qaiser said democracy had been buried in the recent by-elections.

He claimed that the results of a by-election in Haripur, where the wife of former opposition leader Omar Ayub was contesting, had been changed. “The result on Form 47 was different from the one altered on a computer,” he alleged.

Barrister Gohar said the opposition wanted to remain part of parliament and the democratic system, but the alleged rigging in the by-elections had made this difficult.

“As far as I know [Imran] Khan, he will not allow us to be part of parliament anymore,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2025