Imran Khan urges PTI workers to take to streets for “freedom fight”; Qureshi, Asad Umar ready to surrender
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan endorsed on Wednesday his supporters and birthday celebration leaders to take part with full electricity inside the party’s ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ — court arrest motion — beginning nowadays with party’s Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Secretary General Asad Umar voluntarily supplying themselves as much as the authorities.
Khan had announced the ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ in advance this month — within the wake of the coalition government’s spree of arrests of key PTI leaders — after apparently jogging out of options to press the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government to forestall it from “political victimisation”.
“Today, we begin our Jail Bharo marketing campaign for Haqeeqi Azadi for two fundamental reasons. One, it is a peaceful, nonviolent protest against the attack on our constitutionally-assured essential rights,” Khan wrote on Twitter today.
“Two, it is against the monetary meltdown brought on with the aid of a cabal of crooks who’ve money laundered billions in looted wealth and gotten NROs for themselves whilst crushing the human beings, in particular the terrible and center magnificence, beneath the weight of spiralling inflation & rising unemployment,” he brought.
Separately, to refresh the party workers’ zeal for the court arrest movement, Khan released a video message, urging them to “fill up prisons and shatter the idols of fear”.
He called on all Pakistanis to join the movement to achieve ‘Haqeeqi Azadi’.
The party will start the movement court arrests by senior party leaders and at least 200 workers in the first phase, PTI’s Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry had announced on Tuesday.
Qureshi had shared that four other PTI leaders, including him, will surrender themselves and if the police didn’t arrest them they will make a second attempt from Multan.
“If the election process is started on President Arif Alvi’s advice, there will be no need for the court arrest movement,” the former foreign minister added.
Fawad had said that Khan has directed the party to kickstart preparations for the upcoming elections. He urged the PTI’s candidates to launch election campaigns in their respective constituencies.
‘200 workers to voluntarily surrender’
PTI Lahore chapter President Imtiaz Shaikh had announced that former Punjab governor Omer Sarfraz Cheema, Waleed Iqbal, Murad Raas, Muhammad Khan Madni, and Fawad Rasool, accompanied by 200 workers will voluntarily surrender themselves to the authorities in the metropolis.
He had said the movement will start from Lahore’s Charing Cross at 2pm.
“We will move forward over this step in line with our party’s constitution,” Fawad — whom Elahi had criticised last month but later withdrew his statement — had said.
‘Court arrest drive’ meant to create political instability: Rana Sanaullah
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, meanwhile, had said that the PTI’s court arrest drive was aimed at creating political instability, and a law and order situation in the country.
Chairing a meeting on law and order, he had said the PTI wanted to get media attention by creating drama. “The miscreants should be exposed by presenting evidence of their wrongdoings before the masses,” he had added.
In the meeting, it was decided that the miscreants would be arrested and law and order would be ensured in the country at all costs. The arrest of women and poor workers would be avoided, it was decided.
Sanaullah said the record of miscreants would be maintained and their activities would be mentioned in their character certificates.
