Edited by Deepali Verma
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as other incarcerated leaders of his Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party cast their votes through postal ballot from jail, Pakistani media reported as the polling is underway in the South Asian country on February 8.
Bushra Bibi, Khan’s wife,couldn’t participate in the voting as she was convicted and arrested after the completion of the postal voting process, as per the reports of newspaper Dawn.
Bushra Bibi, 49, was imprisoned at the residence of Khan Bani Gala after an accountability court last week sentenced her as well as Imran Khan to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana (gift repository) corruption case.
Mashal Yousafzai, a spokesperson for Bushra Bibi, informed the Pakistani media that the former prime minister’s spouse had been denied casting the vote through a postal ballot.
The leaders managing to vote by postal ballot were former foreign minister in Imran Khan’s cabinet Shah Mahmood Qureshi, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid, as well as the former information minister Fawad Chaudhry.
Overall, less than 100 prisoners of Adiala Jail were able to vote, which constituted only about one per cent of the prison’s 7,000 inmates.
Pakistan, during the polling, saw the suspension of mobile internet services which has been described as ‘mockery of democracy’ by the PTI leaders.
PTI Central Information Secretary Raoof Hasan released a message that said Khan, 71, had dedicated everything, including his life, to that cause.
“Being the citizens of the country, we have a debt to pay. We must use our vote to drive a change in the face of Pakistan by abolishing a rotten system that has cast a vicious stranglehold on the country and its people,” taking to X, he said in a post.
Khan’s party has been stripped of its party symbol of a cricket bat and now the candidates backed by the PTI are contesting as independents. But, the party created a specific website that directs people in Pakistan to the candidates that are backed by the PTI in specific constituencies.
However, without mobile internet suspended, people all over Pakistan would find it difficult to figure out which candidate in their constituency is backed by the PTI.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, has been in jail since August last year and has recently been given 10, 14 and seven years of imprisonment in cipher, Toshakhana and Iddat (his third ‘unlawful’ marriage) cases, respectively.
Pakistan’s election commission has further rejected Imran Khan’s nomination papers as well as those of other party leaders.
Reportedly, one of the party leaders was killed during polling-related violence. In the latest, a key candidate from Lahore was indicted in a terrorism case.
