Govt dares Imran to walk the talk

The coalition government on Saturday lashed out at PTI Chairman Imran Khan over his move to initiate “jail bharo tehreek” (fill the prison movement), throwing the gauntlet to the former premier to lead by example and withdraw bails in the cases against him.

Addressing the media, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb maintained that the PTI chief was “scared” of going to jail and had been “hiding” at his Zaman Park Lahore residence, “using” his party workers for his politics.

“Leadership is the first to go to jail in jail bharo tehreek. You (Imran) do not need this movement. Face the courts and jails will fill automatically (with PTI leaders),”she said.

Speaking metaphorically, the information minister asked the PTI chairman to start “doob maro tehreek” (die of shame movement) instead of jail bharo tehreek.
Directing a pun at Imran, she said those who “cannot go to jail for two days” would run the jail bharo tehreek.

“Nawaz Sharif spent 374 days, Maryam Nawaz 157 and Asif Zardari spent 248 days in jail while Faryal Talpur was taken into custody on Eid day.”

Marriyum, while referring to Imran, said that a man was repeating the same speech that he had been giving for the last 20 years. However, she said, it was not easy to “mislead” the people of the country.

She said, Imran, during his government had taken loans worth Rs25,000 billion and “handed over the country’s economy to the IMF”.

“People know the man who raised the prices of atta, electricity, gas and medicines and [is responsible for] unemployment [in the country],” she said.

“Imran Khan does not have the courage for the jail bhaor tehreek,” she noted, saying it would be better for the PTI chief to go to the courts and face the cases against him.

Referring to Imran, she said people were looking at Article 63 1F of the Constitution under which a mentally ill person cannot become a member of parliament.

The information minister noted that Rs471 billion received by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government from the Centre had not been used to curb militancy, adding that the PTI was now questioning the federal government over terrorism in the country.

Federal Minister of State on Poverty Alleviation Faisal Karim Kundi asked why PTI chairman was getting bails in cases against him if he was “fond of going to jail”.

“Imran’s action and language will land him in jail. PTI members first hurl threats and then ‘beg’. Imran will take a U-turn on jail bharo tehreek too,” he said in a statement.

Taking a dig at Imran, SAPM Attaullah Tarar noted the PTI chief had been “misled”, saying, in the jail bharo tehreek, bail pleas in the cases which are being heard and pending are withdrawn.

“Will Khan saab withdraw bail applications in foreign funding, cypher and Toshakhana cases, and will other [PTI] members also go to jail,” he questioned in a tweet.

Reacting over the PTI chief’s announcement of initiating the jail bharo tehreek, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Spokesperson Hafiz Hamdallah asked Imran to lead by example.

“You (Imran) have started the ‘drama’ of jail bharo tehreek when you see that you are about to be arrested,” he said in a statement.