The Human Rights Council of Pakistan (HRCP) released a statement Tuesday concerning “state machinery” stopping the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party (led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan) from participating in political activities. The Council denounced the move as being a “fundamental violation of human rights” as leaders and members of the party are being arrested for carrying out political duties. The HRCP demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Supreme Court need to ensure that all parties have equal political footing, especially during the current general election.

The Pakistan general election is set to take place on February 8, 2024, according to the Election Commission, within 90 days of the dissolution of the Parliamentary assembly by November 7. Pakistan has gone through significant political and economic crises since Imran Khan’s government was removed through a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly in April 2022. However, the PTI party members and leaders have faced multiple arrests since Imran Khan was arrested in May 2023 on corruption charges which followed protests and further arrests.

More recently and outside of the general election, the Election Commission declared Tehreek-e-Insaf’s intra-party elections “null and void.” They announced that they failed to conduct fair intra-party elections and must re-do the elections within 20 days. The commission then questioned the documents given from the party to the ECP were questionable and outlined the necessary penal codes PTI needed to abide by or they would become illegible to run for Parliament. In response to this, the legal representative of the PTI, Barrister Gohar expressed concern that the “demands of justice” were not met.