Pakistan Elections 2024: Imran Khan casts postal ballot, wife Bushra denied right to vote

Pakistan Elections 2024: Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan and other incarcerated leaders of his Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party cast their votes through postal ballot from jail, Pakistani media reported as the polling is underway in the South Asian country on Thursday (February 8).

But Bushra Bibi, Khan's wife, was unable to participate in the voting as she was convicted and arrested after the completion of the postal voting process, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported.

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Bushra Bibi, 49, was imprisoned at Khan's Bani Gala residence after an accountability court last week sentenced her along with Imran Khan to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana (gift repository) corruption case.

Mashal Yousafzai, a spokesperson for Bushra Bibi told Pakistani media thatthe spouse of the former prime minister had been denied casting the vote through a postal ballot.

Pakistan Elections 2024: Jailed leaders who have cast their ballots

The leaders who have managed to vote by postal ballot include former foreign minister in Imran Khan's cabinetShah Mahmood Qureshi, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid, and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry.

Overall, fewer than 100 prisoners of Adiala Jail were able to vote, constituting only about one per cent of the prison's 7,000 inmates.

As polling are underway in Pakistan, the suspension of mobile internet services has been described as 'mockery of democracy' by the PTI leaders.

In a message, PTI Central Information Secretary Raoof Hasan said Khan, 71, had dedicated everything, including his life, to that cause.

"As citizens of the country, we have a debt to pay. We must use our vote to change the face of Pakistan by dismantling a rotten system that has cast a vicious stranglehold on the country and its people," he said in a post on X.

Also watch |Pakistan Elections 2024: Imran Khan casts his vote from Adiala jail, wife Bushra misses out

Khan's party has been stripped of its cricket bat symbol and instead the candidates backed by the PTI are contesting as independents.

The party, however, created a specific website that directs people across Pakistan to the candidates that are backed by the PTI in specific constituencies.

But with mobile internet suspended, people across Pakistan would find it difficult to figure out which candidate in their constituency is backed by the PTI.

Cricketer-turned-politician Khan, who has been in jail since August last year, has recently been given 10, 14 and seven years of imprisonment in cipher, Toshakhana and Iddat (his third 'unlawful' marriage) cases, respectively.

Pakistan's election commission has also rejected Imran Khan's nomination papers and those of other party leaders.

At least one of his party leaders was killed during polling-related violence and in the latest, a key candidate from Lahore was indicted in a terrorism case.

(With inputs from agencies)