{"id":22633,"date":"2023-11-08T20:32:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T20:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/in-letter-to-pm-president-alvi-raises-ptis-concerns-on-level-playing-field-for-political-parties\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:32:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T20:32:35","slug":"in-letter-to-pm-president-alvi-raises-ptis-concerns-on-level-playing-field-for-political-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/in-letter-to-pm-president-alvi-raises-ptis-concerns-on-level-playing-field-for-political-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"In letter to PM, President Alvi raises PTI\u2019s concerns on level playing field for political parties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>In a letter to interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, President Arif Alvi on Wednesday raised the PTI\u2019s concerns regarding the \u201cerosion of fundamental rights and a level playing field for all political parties\u201d in the run-up to the upcoming general elections.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and President Alvi had agreed on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1785760\">February 8, 2024<\/a> as the date for general elections \u2014 an announcement that has stirred activity in the camps of major political parties.<\/p>\n<p>The PTI has alleged that it is being stopped from carrying out political activities and several of its leaders are incarcerated following violence in the country on May 9.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1787383\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The PTI has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1786301\/pml-n-pti-demand-transparent-polls-level-playing-field-for-all\">called<\/a> for free, fair, tran\u00ads\u00ad\u00ad\u00adparent conduct for the upcoming polls and demanded that a level playing field should be provided to all political parties during the process leading up to elections.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, PM Kakar has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1785383\">stated<\/a> that politicians having loyalties with PTI Chairman Imran Khan \u2014 who is in jail in connection with the cipher case and has been convicted in the Toshakhana case \u2014 will be allowed to contest the upcoming polls.<\/p>\n<p>A statement issued by the President\u2019s Office today, said that Alvi \u201cconveyed \u2026 the concerns of the PTI on the erosion of fundamental rights and level playing field for all political parties\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The president said that it was of the \u201cutmost importance\u201d that the caretaker government made efforts as a \u201cneutral entity to provide a level playing field for all political parties\u201d. He also forwarded a letter sent to him by PTI General Secretary Omar Ayub Khan to the premier.<\/p>\n<p>Alvi termed as \u201creassuring\u201d the premier\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1780944\">recent remarks<\/a> assuring that all registered political parties should have equal rights and opportunities to contest the forthcoming elections.<\/p>\n<p>He further highlighted that democracy was the \u201conly viable way forward for the state and people of Pakistan\u201d, adding that its essence lay in giving people the right to partake in political activities and to be able to voice their opinions through free media.<\/p>\n<p>He said that \u201cthere was a resonance in Pakistan that for free, fair and credible elections, all political parties and leaders had right to contest and it was up to people to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his letter, President Alvi said that he was constitutionally \u201cduty-bound, along with the prime minister and all institutions, to protect the rights of the citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said that in his missive, the PTI secretary general had conveyed the party\u2019s concerns and allegations regarding the \u201cerosion of fundamental rights, with particular reference to enforced disappearances, forced conversions of political loyalties, absence of level playing field for major political parties, crackdown on media and mistreatment of female political activists through prolonged illegal detentions\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The president maintained that the above instances became a \u201cmatter of concern when such actions resulted in the conversion of political associations and\/or loyalties\u201d, adding that the issue became sensitive when female political workers were also subjected to prolonged detentions or frequent rearrests after court relief.<\/p>\n<p>The president highlighted Article 4 (right of individuals to be dealt with in accordance with law), 17 (freedom of association) and 19 (freedom of speech) of the Constitution as he urged PM Kakar, as the head of the government, to \u201ckindly look into these issues\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The PTI is not the only party complaining about a level playing field leading up to the polls. The rivalry between the PML-N and the PPP has gained momentum as the latter has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1786818\/ppp-accuses-pml-n-of-hidden-alliance-with-caretakers-in-polls\">alleged<\/a> that the PML-N has a hidden alliance with the current caretaker government.<\/p>\n<p>The PPP also recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1785706\">announced<\/a> that it was open to forming an electoral alliance with the PTI to counter former ally PML-N.<\/p>\n<p>The PML-N and the PPP were coalition partners in the previous government and had joined hands to remove PTI Chairman Imran Khan from power.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a letter to interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, President Arif Alvi on Wednesday raised the PTI\u2019s concerns regarding the \u201cerosion of fundamental rights and a level playing field for all political parties\u201d in the run-up to the upcoming general elections. Earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and President Alvi had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/08183026afa8425.jpg?r=183042","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}