PTI cries foul play after office sealed

The Punjab government’s Excise and Taxation Department on Tuesday sealed and later unsealed an office of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) after a strong protest by Imran Khan’s stalwarts and intervention of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The move is believed to be an arm-twisting move by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to sabotage the PTI campaign to muster support of the masses. In the afternoon, PTI leaders accused the Punjab government of harassment, warning that they would stage a protest on November 25 (Friday) if the excise officers who illegally sealed the party office were not suspended.
Addressing a press conference at the party office, PTI Lahore President Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed alleged that the excise department was being used against the PTI on the directions of the chief minister. He said tax officials should public apologise from the PTI leadership if they had sealed the party office by mistake, otherwise, the provincial government should suspend them. Mehmood said the PTI would seek remedy from a court of law if the provincial government continued harassing the party leaders. He said the party had deposited the property tax of the party office on Tuesday, whereas the last date for depositing the tax was November 23, Wednesday.
Rasheed said the excise department sealed the PTI office at 9am, but later unsealed the premises. PTI leaders Ijaz Chaudhary, Dr Yasmeen Rashid, Saloni Bukhari, Talat Naqvi, Zaheer Khokhar, Ishtiaq Malik and Murad Raas attended the press conference on this occasion.
Meanwhile, PTI Central Vice President Mansoor Siddiqui alleged that the Lahore district coordination officer had forced a local hotel’s administration to cancel a seminar arranged by PTI to attract professional engineers.
He alleged that the hotel management refused to provide them space for holding the seminar “Engineers for change”, where PTI chief Imran was scheduled to address the participants.
Mansoor said the Punjab government was using unlawful and unethical tactics to suppress the increasing support of the masses to the PTI, “but all such moves would be in vain”.