He claims police checkpoints repeatedly blocked his entry and all attempts to campaign and hold rallies. Even attempts to talk to potential voters were obstructed, he says. He has also accused the police of attempting to intimidate him and his family.
"We have been harassed constantly by police, many of my workers arrested for trying to campaign, and I can't even go into my constituency," said Hafeez, speaking before last week's vote.
"They have also registered many false cases against me. They are going after me like a criminal when all I am trying to do is freely fight an election." The parliamentary elections came against a backdrop of a crackdown on the PTI and rising militant attacks. Last week, at least 30 people were killed when bombs ripped through two political offices in the restive south-western state of Balochistan. Violence at election time is common in Pakistan, which has struggled to rein in various militant groups.
Hafeez's case was not unique. Since violent protests erupted last May, leaders and workers of PTI have alleged a campaign of intimidation and arrests designed to debilitate the party. Fourteen PTI candidates stood in the election from jail.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 16, 2024 من The Guardian Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 16, 2024 من The Guardian Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
'Pretendians' Controversy Over Formerly Unheard-Of First Nation
Local chiefs claim Kawartha Lakes group is part of wave of cases in which people falsely claim Indigenous identity
This Is The Emptying Of Rafah
Thousands of displaced Gazans are on the move again, packing their lives into carts and pickup trucks, as Israel's campaign against Hamas rages on
Vast Online Scam Dupes Thousands Of Shoppers
More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China.
Why Didn't Netflix Do More To Avoid The Baby Reindeer Furore?
What will happen next in the Baby Reindeer saga? Probably one or more bad things.
Picture this
From the galleries and squats of the 90s London art world to the riches of Covid-era New York, a tale of reunion, fame and fallout
Hit and miss Goths, glory and plenty of gimmicks
It was the most politically charged Eurovision song contest in memory-but it was won by a famously neutral nation. As the glittery dust settles from Saturday night in Malmö, Sweden, here's what we learned
Rose Boyt, daughter of the artist Lucian Freud, sat for her father three times.Now 65, she has written a remarkable memoir based on diaries she kept while being painted
ROSE BOYT'S MEMOIR, Naked Portrait, is, in the narrowest sense, her account of sitting for three paintings for her father, Lucian Freud.
A failure to reckon fully with the Troubles fuels distrust and discord
Fifty years ago, on 17 May 1974, my father, a bus conductor, was out on strike.
Believe it or not
Raffaella Spone was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and subjected to death threats. The problem? The video wasn't fake after all. She talks for the first time about being the centre of a story that created headlines around the world, yet nothing was as it seemed...
'HOPELESS AND BROKEN', 'I WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE MY CHILDREN ARE INHERITING', 'I AM SCARED I DON'T SEE HOW WE CAN GET OUT OF THIS MESS'
We asked 380 climate scientists what they felt about the future.