PTI leader reiterates non-violence of ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’

Senator Ejaz Chaudhry on three-day Karachi visit to formulate strategy, finalise schedule

KARACHI:

Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, the focal person for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) 'Jail Bharo Tehreek' reiterated that the court arrest drive would not include vandalism or violence, with the leadership voluntarily courting arrest.

Ejaz said this while speaking to the media at the airport in Karachi, where he would spend the next three days formulating strategy for the drive.

He said that the country was at a critical juncture with the Constitution itself at threat. He was referring to the suo motu notice taken by the Supreme Court on the delay in holding elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The PTI had dissolved its provincial governments in the two provinces to force the federal government in calling early elections.

Speaking alongside him, PTI Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh said that the schedule for the drive would be finalised for all districts of Sindh during the visit.

Sheikh said that a large number of PTI leaders, lawmakers, and workers would court arrest from Sindh. "PTI's central leadership has created history by offering arrests instead of resorting to violence as violence would only harm the country," he said. "We have adopted a democratic approach by starting this drive."

PTI MNA’s resignation

A two-member bench of the Sindh High Court, headed by Sindh Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Sheikh and comprising Justice Yusuf Ali Saeed, heard petitions against the acceptance of resignations of PTI MNAs from Karachi and more time for the by-polls scheduled for March 16.

PTI lawyer Shahab Imam Advocate stated that the matter was in the Supreme Court and the National Assembly (NA) speaker did not have the authority to accept the resignations.

A total of 123 MPAs of PTI had tendered their resignation last year, which were accepted piecemeal by the NA speaker. The resignations were submitted to force dissolution of the NA and have fresh elections.

The lawyer contended that legal process had been adopted in the acceptance of the resignations.

The election commission also de-notified MNAs in the light of this decision, they added, while requesting the court to declare the ECP's notification regarding the acceptance of resignations to be declared illegal and null and void.

The court issued a notice to the ECP and sought its response on March 21. The court also rejected the plea to stop the by-elections scheduled for March 16 in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2023.