LAHORE: Supporting a debate on creating new provinces, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Secretary General Salman Akram Raja has said no major change should take place in the system until the people’s “true representatives” are present in the assemblies.

The existing parliament and provincial assemblies are not representative of the people, Raja said adding that an “artificial” system had been established through a fraudulent election.

“The PTI founder should be involved in the entire dialogue process,” he demanded.

Flanked by PTI Information Secretary Shaukat Basra, Mr Raja was speaking to media persons on Thursday after visiting the residence of journalist Natiq Rehman, who was thrashed by police during a party protest in front of civil courts here on Wednesday.

He said the PTI’s first demand was that party founder Imran Khan be shifted to a hospital and given proper medical treatment. After that, Mr Raja demanded, Imran should be released and “false cases” registered against him be withdrawn.

He stressed that Imran’s legitimate role as the country’s biggest political leader should be acknowledged.

Answering a question that what was the party’s plan regarding its Sept 27 protest call, Raja said the final programme in this regard would be shared with the media in a couple of days, and added that every person will have to come out of their homes to bring a “revolution.”

“Revolutions are not brought by political parties alone, but by the entire nations,” he said.

Earlier, at the journalist’s residence, Raja termed the Punjab police’s conduct inappropriate and unjust, because Natiq was performing his journalistic duties.

“We salute Natiq Rehman. Yesterday, he was working hard to show the state violence on camera,” he said and added that the police, however, subjected him to worst torture.

He demanded that an FIR for the journalist should be registered immediately.

“What happened yesterday [Wednesday] was an atrocity against humanity,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2026