Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Friday announced kick-starting the "Jail Bharo" or court arrest movement from Wednesday next week against the government's "political victimisation" of his party's leaders and allies.
PTI leaders Fawad Chaudhry, Azam Swati, and Shahbaz Gill have been arrested and released on bail, while Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid has also secured bail recently — and the party said all of them were tortured in custody, a claim that authorities.
"We will fill jails, they [authorities] will have no space left then," the PTI chief said while addressing the nation via video link from Lahore, where he's residing since being shot in the legs on November 3 last year.
The tensions between the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led 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.
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.”
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 organising 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.
Lashing out at the incumbent rulers over the recently announced mini-budget, Khan asked as if raising prices is a “tough decision.”
The government has broken the backbone of people by hiking the prices of all daily-use items, the deposed prime minister added. "[IMF] loans are not the solution to the problems being faced by the country."
Taking a jibe at the PDM government, Khan said: “They did not come into power via election but auction. The government does not seem to conduct elections in 90 days. They fear elections.”
The ruling alliance wanted to win elections through the rigging, he accused the authorities and at the same time warned that the PTI would not "keep silent over snatching of elections".
According to the PTI chief, it seems that institutions are under pressure and the government is running away from elections.
He also vowed that the PTI would not let the government rig the elections, no matter what they do.
Turning his guns towards the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party in Sindh, the former prime minister said the PPP has no vote bank in Karachi but it showed achievement in recent elections in the metropolis.
Referring to journalist Arshad Sharif’s assassination and alleged crackdown against his party’s leadership, Khan said that the government wanted to send them behind the bars, hence, they would launch a court arrest campaign across the country.
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