Hamid Khan, one of the founding members of PTI, has lamented that his party does not even have a playing field amid growing demand for a level playing field by some major political parties.

“Let alone a level playing field, the PTI does not even have a playing field,” he told Aaj News while speaking about the political situation in the country. “It would have been that if there was a field and it was discussed whether there is an advantage or not.”

Khan was on Asma Shirazi’s show Faisla Aap Ka which was aired on the news channel on Monday. They responded to queries related to general elections, May 9 events, and the cipher case. PML-N leader Khurram Dastgir and PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira were also on the show.

“In 2013, the PML-N had a field where they could appoint their candidates. Today, the PTI has a situation where they have no field and all leadership and workers are behind bars or either hiding,” he said.

The general elections in Pakistan would be held on February 8—an announcement which was announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan and President Arif Alvi after the Supreme Court directed the polls overseer to approach the head of state for the exercise.

In recent times, the PPP and the PTI have called for a level playing field in the polls while the PML-N has maintained that it was not giving equal opportunity in the past when their party supremo was behind bars.

When asked, Khan replied that elections should be held within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly. But he lamented that the Constitution was not followed as the time limit was crossed and polls were not held.

He was of the view such disobedience disturbs the system.

The PTI leader admitted that President Alvi’s decision to dissolve the assembly when the NA session on the no-trust motion was under way was not right and the Supreme Court had set aside the order and restored the assembly.

PML-N’s Dastgir said that the solution to the “constitutional complexity” was elections without any “unconstitutional interference”.

He claimed that his party was not provided a level playing field in 2002, 2008, and 2018 and added that polls were held despite their party leaders being arrested.

According to Dastgir, the PTI has to answer queries related to the May 9 events. He stated that there was not any May 9 event in the PML-N record.

PTI’s Khan was of the view that the claims related to the May 9 events were an accusation, saying that he has filed an application in the Supreme Court that has called for a judicial inquiry by a judicial commission to ascertain the facts.

“Blaming a single party is not appropriate as much evidence is available. It should be reviewed so that the nation knows what happened,” he said and added that a political version was made out of those events.

PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira stressed the need for making basis for credible elections and serious efforts should be made to garner people’s trust on them.

Dastgir was of the view that the country’s law and processes needed a review as they were becoming a “hurdle” in Pakistan’s progress.

But Kaira was of a different opinion as he questioned whether there were obstacles to the system or the Constitution was not followed. “We can have amendments. The issue is the non-implementation of the Constitution,” he said.