Pakistan: Imran Khan’s party launches ‘fill up jails’ campaign as non-violent protest

Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former prime minister Imran Khan, has launched a non-violent protest movement called ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ (fill up jails) on Wednesday.

The movement is aimed at voluntary surrender after months of street protests, calling for early elections in Pakistan.

PTI vice chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, PTI secretary general Asad Umar, former Punjab governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema and PTI senator Azam Swati were among the first who offered voluntary arrest on Wednesday in Lahore.

Imran Khan announced the launch of the protest on February 22, saying that his party was ready to initiate a “peaceful, nonviolent protest against attack on our constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights.”

He added: “We are facing sham FIRs and NAB cases, custodial torture, attacks on journalists and social media people.”

The campaign has been launched after several of his party leaders were arrested by the authorities in recent months.

In a Twitter post, Imran Khan also said that the protest was also meant to raise a voice against “the economic meltdown” caused by the current administration whose leaders he accused of making ill-gotten wealth. He said Pakistan’s “poor and middle class” have been facing “the burden of spiraling inflation and rising unemployment.”

200 political workers to surrender voluntarily

PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that the party’s top leaders were ready for the voluntary arrest movement. “Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Umar insisted that they would volunteer for arrest on the first day of the movement.”

PTI party workers started the campaign from Lahore city where they gathered at the party head office before leaving for Charing Cross for the mass arrests.

“Our senior leaders will surrender along with 200 party workers,” PTI Senator and focal person of the movement Senator Ejaz Chaudhry said.

PTI Lahore chapter leader Imtiaz Shaikh said that Omar Sarfraz Cheema, Waleed Iqbal, Murad Raas, Muhammad Khan Madni, and Fawad Rasool, were among the 200 workers who would voluntarily surrender to the authorities in Lahore.

Govt reaction

Khawaja Saad Rafique, railways minister who is a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, dismissed the campaign, saying that he was not in favour of detaining political workers of any party.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the “PTI’s court arrest campaign was aimed at creating political instability, and law and order situation in the country” and it was launched to seek media attention.

In a meeting held in Islamabad to discuss the PTI arrest movement, he said that “law and order would be maintained at all costs”, and the arrest of women and ordinary workers would be avoided. He also said the record of miscreants would be maintained and their activities would be mentioned in their character certificates.

Pervaiz Elahi joins PTI

Meanwhile, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has joined PTI with ten other former MPAs of his party Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q). Elahi announced the move at a press conference in Lahore, stating that he had always stood with former prime minister Imran Khan during “hard and testing times.”

Elahi’s name has been approved for PTI’s central president role. Following the move, PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has dismissed Elahi from his party post and terminated his membership over his comments about merging the PML-Q with PTI.