ISLAMAABD
\nPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Asad Qaiser alleged on Saturday that restrictions on his movement prevented him from reaching Islamabad airport in time, causing him to miss a flight to Skardu where he was scheduled to take part in the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) election campaign.
\nAddressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside former senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and Senator Fauzia Arshad, Qaiser said he encountered road blockades while travelling to the airport for his flight to Skardu.
\n\u201cAt first, I believed the roads had been closed due to security arrangements, but later learned the restrictions were imposed because of my planned movement,\u201d he said.
\nThe development comes as political parties intensify campaigning across Gilgit-Baltistan ahead of the June 7 elections.
\nQuestioning the fairness of the electoral process, Qaiser said leaders of other political parties were being allowed to campaign freely in the region.
\n\u201cBilawal Bhutto is travelling to Gilgit-Baltistan and Amir Muqam is already there, yet I was stopped from reaching the airport,\u201d he said, adding that such actions were making the upcoming elections controversial.
\n\u201cIf this is how elections are to be conducted, there is little purpose in holding them,\u201d he added.
\nQaiser also criticised the ruling coalition, saying the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were \u201ctwo sides of the same coin\u201d.
\nHe said a future PTI government would focus on developing Gilgit-Baltistan into a major tourism destination.
\nSpeaking on the occasion, Khokhar claimed that hundreds of passengers had missed their flights due to the road closures. He said every candidate had the right to campaign and participate freely in the electoral process.
\nHe alleged that if election outcomes were predetermined, authorities should avoid spending public resources on polls and instead \u201chand out Form 47s\u201d.
\nKhokhar also said political dialogue and consensus among political forces remained the only way to steer the country out of its current challenges.
\nCalling for a new national charter agreed upon by all political parties, he said political reconciliation was essential for democratic stability.
\nReferring to previous efforts at negotiations, Khokhar said the Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Ayeen Pakistan alliance had accepted the prime minister\u2019s offer for talks.
\n\u201cNo meaningful progress has been made in the two months since the proposal was made,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMAABD Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Asad Qaiser alleged on Saturday that restrictions on his movement prevented him from reaching Islamabad airport in time, causing him to miss a flight to Skardu where he was scheduled to take part in the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) election campaign. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside former senator Mustafa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"yoast_head":"\n