PTI kicks off ‘Jail Bharo’ drive

LAHORE:

On the first day of the PTI's peaceful “Jail Bharo Tehreek” on Wednesday, leaders and activists of the party started voluntarily presenting themselves for arrest in Lahore.

The PTI Central Media Cell claimed that those who were courted arrest in Lahore included Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Umar Sarfraz Cheema, Azam Swati, Muhammad Madni, Murad Rass, Ihsan Dogar, Siddique Khan, Azam Niazi, Abdul Wakeel, Shadi Khan, Gulfarm Virk, Muhammad Rehman, Hamed Ullah Khan, Mian Shahzad, Noran Sohail, Rana Manan, Chaudhry Zahid, Malik Sajid Prince, M Ahmad Bhatti, Shahzad Khokhar and Azhar Bhatti among other party’s central and provincial leaders as well as activists.

Earlier during the day, a large number of PTI activists and supporters started gathering at the residence of their chief Imran Khan to launch the movement aimed at pushing the government for early elections, registering a protest against the prevailing economic instability in the country as well as condemning the alleged crackdown on party leaders and activists.

Addressing the activists, PTI Vice Chairman Qureshi asked them to brace themselves for a “great cause”, which the party had been pursuing. He maintained that the PTI chief had told him not turn himself in for arrest, as he was the second in command in the party.

However, he added that he had decided to set a tradition of party leaders presenting themselves for arrest first instead of the activists.

He also talked about the alleged campaign being run by the PML-N against the judiciary -- referring to its claim that some judges were pro-PTI -- while detailing the reasons for the party’s court arrest movement.

“The attack that the PML-N leadership has carried out on the judiciary was unprecedented. I urge the legal fraternity that it should not remain silent and should play its role to defend the judiciary, as it was its responsibility,” he said.

He added that an institution was being threatened and obstacles were created in its paths while judges were being insulted -- an inappropriate act.

Later, hundreds of PTI activists from Imran’s Zaman Park residence and the party's Jail Road office began their journey towards Mall Road.

Several roads witnessed traffic gridlocks and the party supporters seemed enthusiastic.

The party leaders announced that they had made the event a “momentous occasion”.

Addressing the activists outside the Punjab Assembly on Mall Road, the PTI vice chairman castigated the coalition government for failing to control inflation and introducing the “mini-budget”.

He added that the current rulers had come to power to control inflation and fix the economy, but the question was had they accomplished that.

PTI Secretary General Asad Umar said the party had launched the movement to protest against the rising inflation, economic meltdown and violation of human rights.

He held the incumbent rulers responsible for the problems plaguing the country.

“These rulers were a product of regime change operation,” he added.

Umar claimed that the PTI would not silently watch the pain of the common people, who were struggling hard to feed their families.

“The imported government is not acceptable at any cost,” he added.

PTI leaders Ejaz Chaudhary, Jamshaid Cheema, Umer Safraz Cheema, Waleed Iqbal and others also spoke on the occasion.

As the PTI launched its campaign from Chairing Cross on Mall Road, jail authorities have cleared barracks at prisons in Lahore, Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan.

The authorities decided to keep the political prisoners in separate barracks.

Two barracks have been cleared and cleaned in Kot Lakhpat and Camp jails in this connection.

Both the prisons in the provincial capital are overcrowded, hosting at least 8,000 inmates while having the capacity of only 4,000.

Similarly, other jails in Punjab are also overcrowded as well.

All the prisons in the province have a total capacity for 35,000 prisoners. However, they have been accommodating at least 50,000 inmates.

If the government decided to detain the PTI activists -- that too in bulk -- it would create a challenge of managing space in jails.

To deal with this problem, the authorities are looking for prisons, where the population of inmates was less.

Two jails -- Dera Ghazi Khan and Mianwali -- have been identified so far.

According to an official, if the number of PTI activists superseded beyond their limit in the jails of Lahore, they would be shifted to other districts including in Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan.

IG Punjab Usman Anwar said a peaceful protest was the right of every citizen.

However, he added that in case anyone took the law into their hands, the police would take action against them.

The district administration of Lahore had announced the imposition of Section 144 on Mall Road as well Liberty Chowk, Gulberg a few days back and prohibited the holding of rallies.

An official shared that the deliberations between top brass of police and political administration were under way to deal with the issue of the movement, as PTI leaders and activists voluntarily sat inside the prison vans.

Their number has reportedly crossed 200.

A source shared that the police would check for any criminal record of the activists using biometric machines and CNICs.

If they were found involved in any cases from the past, they might be arrested in connection with them.

Otherwise, action could be taken against them after invoking Maintenance of Public Order Ordinace (MPO) and violation of Section 144.

A case against the arrested ones was yet to be registered till the filing of this report.

According to Punjab government sources, 81 leaders and activists of the PTI had courted arrest in Lahore.

The police, after calculating the number of PTI’s arrested leaders and activists, have sent a report to the Punjab government, they added.

The sources further said the PTI leaders and activists, who had voluntarily presented themselves for arrest, were being kept at Kot Lakhpat Jail so far.