PTI's 'Jail Bharo Tehreek' enters 3rd day

After Lahore and Peshawar, Rawalpindi follows suit with senior leaders setting the ball in motion

RAWALPINDI/ LAHORE:

More PTI workers and leaders volunteered to be detained en masse on Friday as the party’s ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ picked up steam into its third day – a drive designed as a countermove to the government’s persecution of the Imran Khan-led opposition.

After Lahore and Peshawar, the party’s Rawalpindi chapter followed the suit with Fayyazul Hassan Chohan setting the ball in motion along with Zulfi Bukhari and Sadaqat Abbasi.

Over 150 party activists, including five former lawmakers, reached the Committee Chowk in the garrison city to force themselves into prisoner vans.

Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed and PTI leader Aamir Kayani, along with several other leaders, also reached the designated spot to surrender themselves to the authorities.

Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen’s head Allama Nasir Abbas, along with his three colleagues, also volunteered for a voluntary arrest.

Senior PTI leaders had courted arrests on the call of party chief Imran Khan on Wednesday in order to counter the ruling coalition’s “attack” on the party’s fundamental rights and the economic “meltdown”.

Read more: Attempts being made to sabotage Wazirabad JIT findings: Imran

On Friday, Chohan, along with 50 other workers, was put into the prisoner van. However, these leaders and workers were later “released” at Mandra Road.

The police officers said over 150 arrests were made till late Friday night, of which several will be released later. They shared that the leaders will be sent to different jails after receiving one-month detention orders.

‘Illegal detention’

At the same time, PTI approached the Lahore High Court, seeking the location of its top leadership and supporters who volunteered for arrests two days ago under the party’s “Jail Bharo Tehreek" and prayed it to restrain the authorities from shifting the detainees anywhere else.

Likewise, the court was also petitioned in a habeas corpus plea for the recovery of party leader Asad Umar from “improper, illegal and unlawful” custody of the Lahore police.

In a petition filed by PTI’s senior leader Fawad Chaudhry, the party sought directions to “restrain concerned quarters from involving the detainees into false and fabricated criminal cases”.

The former minister requested the court to issue directions to respondents to not shift the detainees out of the Lahore district and to adopt 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.

Also read: Wazirabad attack JIT members replaced

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.

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.”

Habeas corpus petition

Meanwhile, in a separate petition, the wife of PTI Secretary General Asad Umar filed a habeas corpus petition in the LHC for her husband’s recovery from “improper, illegal and unlawful” custody of the Lahore police.

The petition filed under Articles 4 and 9 of the Constitution named Lahore Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rafia Haider, Lahore Capital City Police Officer Bilal Siddique Kamyana, Punjab Inspector General of Police (Prison) Malik Mubashar Ahmed Khan and Central Jail’s superintendent as respondents.

Umar’s wife contended that Umar was in “illegal and improper custody” and was being deprived of basic amenities such as food and necessary medicine by the superintendent.

She said she had found out that the Lahore DC had issued an “illegal and unlawful” 30-day detention order for her husband while the police refused to share any information.

She further said that she had tried her best to Umar so she could notice his health and life quality but was denied by the authorities from meeting him.

The petition said that Umar was detained without any allegation and was “not involved in any anti-social activities”. It added that his life was at stake at the hands of the respondents and could suffer “irreparable loss and injury”, along with her too.

She requested the court to set aside the detention order and issue directions for his release and production before the court.

The petition was fixed for hearing on Feb 27 (Monday).