PTI MNAs being offered big bucks to change loyalties, claims Asad Qaiser

• PTI announces countrywide protest on Friday.
• Party invites all political forces to join protest.
• "Game of fire and blood" being played in country.

ISLAMABAD: Veteran Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Qaiser on Sunday made a startling claim that the party lawmakers were being pressurised and offered big bucks to buy their loyalties, The News reported.

PTI Chairman Gohar Khan had also accused the government of coercing the PTI MPs to change their allegiance after the Supreme Court verdict about the reserved seats for women and minorities was announced.

The Supreme Court on July 12 ruled that the PTI was eligible for the allocation of reserved seats, paving the way for the party’s return to the parliament, which was kicked out of the February 8 polls owing to the electoral body's December 2023 ruling.

The judgement has also increased the pressure on the coalition alliance as it will change the composition of the National Assembly.

Asad Qaiser said the rulers had no shame as they had resorted to various tactics in a bid to cling to power, including pressurising the lawmakers.

“At the moment, the game of fire and blood is being played in the country and they are cracking down on a political party,” he said in a video message, announcing countrywide protests on Friday.

Qaiser said the PTI would request that all the political parties join this protest, including the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).

“My fellow Pakistanis, we have announced a protest in the whole of Pakistan next Friday under Tehreek Tahaffuz Aiyeen-e-Pakistan. Our protest has three aims and objectives. Our protest is against the deteriorating law and order situation in the country and the failure of the government (to tackle it),” he said.

Secondly, the seasoned politician said, their demonstration was against the unlawful and unconstitutional imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi as well as “our other prisoners in jails and the illegal abduction and disappearance of our social workers and especially those related to social media”.

“Thirdly, our protest is against inflation which has brought doomsday on the poor people. Electricity bills have been increased, petrol prices have been increased, taxes have been imposed which are unaffordable. The people will hold a historic protest on Friday,” he maintained.

He said all the political parties especially the GDA would be invited to participate in the protest.

He said: “All sections be it farmers, students, traders or workers we all have to save this country”.

The decision to hold the protests on July 26 was taken during an emergency meeting of the Tehreek under its chairman, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, a senior politician from Balochistan, who also heads the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party.