ISLAMABAD: Four PTI leaders, including the party’s general secretary, were expelled from Gilgit-Baltistan while local leaders were detained on Tuesday.

General elections in GB are scheduled for Sunday (June 7), after a four-month delay attributed to harsh winter weather.

According to the PTI leadership, the party is not being allowed to campaign in the upcoming elections.

“Today, upon entering Gilgit-Baltistan, I, along with Shaukat Basra, Naeem Panjutha, and Zaheer Babar, was stopped by the police within the jurisdiction of Jal Police Station and prevented from proceeding further,” PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja claimed in a post on X.

“The DSP informed us that my name had been specifically listed in their records. We and our colleagues from the Insaf Student Federation (ISF) were subsequently surrounded by police vehicles and forcibly escorted out of the province,” claimed the PTI general secretary.

Raja said that these actions “represent an attempt to restrict our constitutional right to free movement and political activity”.

“Such measures cannot suppress the voice of the people or their democratic aspirations. The nation has already made its decision: it stands with Imran Khan and the cause of freedom,” he added.

Talking to Dawn, Raja said that party leaders were travelling to GB by road, as PTI stalwart and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser had earlier not been allowed to travel by air. Similarly, PTI lawmaker Junaid Akbar was also expelled from the region.

“When we reached the area of Jal police station in Diamer District, we were stopped by the police,” he alleged.

“The police officer was already aware that I was going to Gilgit-Baltistan. They told us that they had orders not to allow us to go there. I asked them who had given the orders, but they said, ‘You can understand who has given us the orders,’” he added.

Raja added that the police travelled with the PTI leaders until they reached Babusar Top, at which point they returned.

Shaukat Basra, while talking to Dawn, said that the people of GB were supporting PTI, and that was why the government was scared of the party’s election campaign.

“They are not giving us a level playing field for the elections, but I believe that the strategy of the government will backfire. While we were expelled, the local leaders and workers of the ISF, who had come to receive us, were arrested by the police,” he added.

Meanwhile, PTI Secretary Information Sheikh Waqas Akram strongly condemned the incident, comparing it with the general elections held on February 8, 2024.

According to Akram, Raja and other party leaders were barred from entering GB and sent back, a “repeat of the suppression tactics used against PTI leadership ahead of and during the 2024 general elections”.

He claimed that police were being provided lists and were identifying and stopping PTI-affiliated individuals from entering the region. Akram said the alleged action “constitutes a clear violation of the Constitution and democratic principles”.

Furthermore, he said a systematic campaign was being carried out in the name of issuing no-objection certificates (NOCs), mirroring the administrative hurdles and restrictions imposed on PTI candidates and workers across Pakistan in February 2024.

He said ruling parties, particularly the PML-N and PPP, were enjoying full state patronage.

“The administration is providing them with facilities and protocol for their public meetings, while every door is being shut on PTI, a clear replication of the one-sided state support extended to these parties in February 2024”, he said.

Earlier today, political bigwigs sought to garner public support in GB as PML-N President Nawaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari addressed rallies.

Bilawal said the region should be afforded the same rights and protections that other provinces enjoy under the 18th Amendment.

Meanwhile, the PML-N supremo lamented the lack of development in the region.

“I am speaking to you after many years. Isn’t that the case? Perhaps you have forgotten me,” Nawaz said while addressing the public in Gilgit, prompting roaring chants in his support.

The PML-N president then assured the GB residents that he would hold a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and ask him to expand the airport so that commercial jets could operate there.