Sanaullah challenges Imran to initiate ‘Jail Bharo’ movement

Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah on Sunday challenged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to start the “Jail Bharo” campaign aimed at mass imprisonments of his party workers to protest the legal crackdown on some of them, adding that he would “treat” them.

Addressing a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) convention in Multan, Sanaullah, who also serves as the party’s provincial president, said that PTI leaders will be imprisoned where PML-N leaders were imprisoned.

However, he said, the current administration would not be as “strict” as their predecessors had been on them, rather they would be given all the facilities.

However, alluding to certain rumours, the interior minister said that Imran would not give “one thing without which he cannot live”.

He also took the opportunity to address the “propaganda” about the PML-N being afraid of elections. He declared that his party was not afraid of polls, rather they would contest the election and form a government in Punjab after winning there.

On the occasion, Sanaullah also boasted the accomplishments of his party’s supremo, Nawaz Sharif, who he said had made the country into a nuclear power, adding that Pakistan was on course to become an “Asian Tiger”.

“Nawaz Sharif conducted six nuclear explosions for the sake of the country, compared to India’s five [but] the world does not accept any Muslim country becoming a nuclear power,” he said.

The interior minister said that Pakistan’s sovereignty remains intact because of its nuclear power. He said that the country’s economy was developing in the 90s, and given how the situation is these days, if the country was not a nuclear power, “India would have attacked us”.

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It is worth mentioning here that the PTI chief recently announced the ‘Jail Bharo’ movement against the government and asked his supporters to be ready and wait for his call.

The former prime minister made the announcement to strongly protest the targeting of PTI leaders by law enforcement agencies, saying that his party would not remain quiet while his party’s leaders are mistreated.

He accused the government of trying to weaken his party by scaring its leadership and workers, claiming that the government was resorting to these tactics to delay the elections.

Asking his party’s workers to prepare for the final call, he said that he had never seen an interim government so busy in “targeting” its opponents.

Following the PTI chief’s announcement, the coalition government lashed out at the former premier and challenged him to set an example by withdrawing his bail in the cases against him.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb accused him of being afraid of going to jail, claiming that he was “hiding” at his Lahore residence. She called on PTI workers to face the courts, adding that the “jails will fill automatically”.

In a metaphorical manner, she also recommended that the former premier starts a “doob maro tehreek” (die of shame movement).

She also mocked the party, saying that those who could not handle jail for two days would now run the mass imprisonment movement.