Imran Khan to launch 'Jail Bharo' movement from next week

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. File Pic

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has announced that the "Jail Bharo" movement will start next week Wednesday from Lahore, Geo News reported.

"We will fill jails, they [authorities] will have no space left to hide," Khan said while addressing the audience through his televised video and warned the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM) government.

Blaming the incumbent coalition government for its "political victimization" of his party leaders and allies, Khan claimed that the police entered the homes of PTI workers in Multan and were tasked with such threatening tactics.

In his televised address from Lahore's Zaman Park residence from where he has been residing since being shot in the legs on November 3 last year, Khan said, "They want to enslave us by threatening to put us in jails."

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In the wake of sedition cases filed against his party leaders including Fawad Chaudhry, Azam Swati and Shahbaz Gill, Imran Khan on February 4 announced "Jail Bharo Tehreek" and asked PTI workers and supporters to prepare for movement across the country, reported Geo News.

The interim government is strongly against the PTI, he added.

While referring to the caretaker setup, he said: "The man with a questionable character was brought in. We have a list of 23 people who had inflicted atrocities of which 16 were brought in."

The PTI chief also recalled the "torture" inflicted on his party's leaders highlighting the treatment meted out to Swati, Gill, and Fawad.

"Never in history have such acts been committed against political opponents," Khan lamented.

The tensions between the incumbent government and the PTI have heightened, with no sign of respite as the elections in two provinces -- Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa -- near, following the party's decision to dissolve the assemblies. Punjab and KP assemblies were dissolved by the PTI on January 14 and January 18, respectively, according to Geo News.

Firing fresh broadside at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the PTI chief said: "It is dangerous that the CEC [Chief Election Commissioner] is showing his inability on conducting the election."

Khan's fresh criticism comes hours after President Arif Alvi summoned CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja for an urgent meeting on February 20 regarding the announcement of the date for fresh general elections.

He said that they dissolved the provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP as per the knowledge that the country's Constitution clarifies that the elections should be held within 90 days of the dissolution of any assembly.

"The caretaker government and the interim chief ministers would be illegal on the 91st day," he added.

No disaster could be bigger than that when the judiciary failed to ensure the implementation of the Constitution, he said while hitting out hard at the polls organizing authority. "There is no justice where the rule of law collapses."

Khan said that they had been claiming that the coalition government did not have the mandate and they cannot run the country.

Blaming the interim government for obstructing the probe against the assassination attack on him in Wazirabad on November 3 last year, the PTI chief said "its job is to only conduct elections".

"The interim government first comes and stops the [joint investigation team] JIT and steals records. When an officer goes to collect the JIT report, it is found that only 11 pages of the report are remaining," he said, adding that the JIT records are being claimed to have gone missing.

The former premier, lambasting the interim setup in Punjab, said that all links were pointing at them and they were worried about being caught, reported Geo News.

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