Peshawar: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that “none of his party workers broke the law despite our children and elderly being harassed”.

The former foreign minister said this while addressing a press conference in Peshawar related to the raids on the residences of PTI’s leaders and workers late Monday night.

The march is the party’s constitutional right and there is no political justification to stop PTI workers. “We have filed a petition in the Supreme Court and hope they will take into account the precedents set by law,” he said.

During PTI’s tenure of three years and seven months not once was anyone stopped from staging protests, Qureshi said. “Bilawal [Bhutto Zardari of the PPP] led a march from Sindh to Islamabad but the PTI government never placed containers in his way.

There have been reported that the government has decided to seal Islamabad’s Red Zone ahead of the march, with shipping containers being brought to the area to cordon off entrance points.

“We never jumped over people’s walls nor did we try to pressure people during our tenure. Even our own protests were peaceful and not even a single pot was broken,” Qureshi said.

“This government apparently has a lot of experience in dealing with fascism and martial laws but it seems like they haven’t learnt anything,” the former foreign minister alleged.

He also said that Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of 1973 (authorises the executive magistrate of any state or territory to issue an order to prohibit the assembly of four or more people in an area) was being used against them.

The party’s plans to march to Islamabad stay the same despite the government’s crackdown and PTI chairperson Imran Khan is expected to lead the rally to Islamabad tomorrow, May 25.

Qureshi has advised party workers in Punjab to stay in hiding till the rally and take whatever means of transport they can to join the D-Chowk protest. If party workers cannot join the Islamabad protest, he said they “will ensure all of Pakistan becomes Islamabad’s Srinagar Highway.”

The PTI leader said that they are looking for free and fair elections where the people decide who will rule the country.

Qureshi blasted the current finance minister, Miftah Ismail, for the stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund as the country’s economy continues its downward spiral.

He said that Punjab was embroiled in a political crisis while accusing the current government of using the local police to create problems for PTI workers.

“There has been a major reshuffle in the Punjab police. Those with blood on their hands are being placed at key positions,” he said.