PTI moves court seeking location of 'arrested' leaders

Pakistan Thereek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday filed a petition seeking the location of its top leadership and supporters who volunteered for arrests two days ago under the party’s “Jail Bharo Tehreek” on the call of PTI chief Imran Khan.

PTI’s senior leader Fawad Chaudhry filed the petition in Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking directions to “restrain concerned quarters from involving the detainees into false and fabricated criminal cases”.

In the petition, the former minister requested the court to pass directions to respondents to not shift the detainees out of the Lahore district and to adopt a due process by producing them before the court of law.

Governor Punjab through the chief secretary, home secretary, inspector general police (IGP) Punjab, IGP prisons, CCPO Lahore, SP operations, the government of Pakistan through the interior secretary, the federal investigation agency (FIA) through its director general and others were made respondents in the petition.

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Fawad further implored in his petition that Imran had announced a “jail bharo" drive across the country to safeguard the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan, as well as the rights of the general public.

"The said movement is constructed on the violation of the provisions of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, by the sitting government by not announcing the elections of provincial assemblies (Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa)."

The PTI leader contended that the LHC had already passed a direction to concerned corners for announcing the election date in a separate writ petition but even the court’s order is not being complied with.

"As the top leadership and supporters offered their voluntary arrests, the respondents not only maltreated and manhandled them but also made efforts to threaten the respective contenders," read the petition.

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The party’s senior vice president also stated that the “respondents failed in rendering their duties and proved themselves as a puppet of the sitting government despite the fact that not even a single incident was reported about any illegality on part of their leadership, supporters or workers.”

The PTI kicked off its “Jail Bharo” drive earlier this week as leaders and activists of the party started voluntarily presenting themselves for arrest.

The PTI Central Media Cell claimed that those who courted arrest in Lahore on Wednesday 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.