Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman and former premier Imran Khan Saturday told the party leadership, workers and supporters to get ready for “Jail Bharo Tehreek” (fill the prison movement), saying that he would make the announcement in this regard soon.

“We have two options: Considering what they have been doing, we could have gone for a wheel-jam strike and demonstrations – which is also a way and a democratic one,” Imran Khan said in a televised address. “But since the state of the economy is so bad, it’ll worsen. Therefore, I ask all my workers, the Pakistani nation and everyone to prepare for the Jail Bharo movement,” he added.

The former premier while announcing a new movement against the coalition government following the arrests of PTI leaders said that the party leaders and workers should wait for his signal. The PTI chief said that the movement would convey to the ruling alliance which side the public is.

Khan’s comments come in the wake of sedition cases filed against his party’s Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry and former member of National Assembly Shandana Gulzar, while Senator Azam Swati and Shahbaz Gill were booked earlier for speaking against the military. The PTI chairman while addressing his supporters via video link asked the workers and his party leaders to start preparation for the movement. Imran said that the ruling coalition was using tactics to delay the general elections, saying he never saw an interim government in the country’s political history which was allegedly busy targeting the opponents.

Imran Khan warned against any move to delay the elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkwa. He said the governors of the provinces are supposed to give date for new elections so that polls could be held in the within 90 days of the dissolution of the provincial legislatures. “I was advised against dissolving assemblies but I did so keeping in mind that Constitution requires elections to be held within 90 days,” he added.

The PTI chief also claimed that “powerful quarters” used several tactics including intimidation to avert the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly. “But despite all of this we secured confidence vote and dissolved assembly.”

Imran said despite the passage of 18 days of the dissolution of the provincial assemblies, the Punjab and KP governors have not yet given a date to the ECP for new elections. “After 90 days, the Article 6 will be applied to all those who are part of this [interim] governments if new elections are not held.”

The former premier, while addressing the youth and nation, added that his party won’t stay quiet on the violence being inflicted on his party’s members. “Instead of causing destruction, we would now prepare Jail Bharo movement.”

“It was their plan to weaken Tehreek-e-Insaf by frightening and threatening,” the PTI chief said. Khan claimed his party never committed such atrocities in its tenure as the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government in the centre has. “Fawad Chaudhry was picked up from home at 3am. What did Shandana Gulzar do that made her a terrorist? As the court gives bail to Sheikh Rashid, more cases are being filed against him,” the PTI chairman said, insisting on how action has been taken against every person who called out the regime change. The former prime minister said human rights violations have continued since the “imported government” arrived. “No example can be found for the way Shehbaz Gill was tortured. The effects of the torture on him are still there,” Khan said.

Speaking about the attempted assassination attack on himself, the PTI chairman said he couldn’t get the FIR of his choice registered despite being a former prime minister. However, he said, 60 FIRs were filed against him. Slamming the PDM government for not being able to control the skyrocketing dollar rates, Khan said: “When the no-confidence motion came to the assembly on the basis of a conspiracy, the dollar was for Rs178. The dollar [rates] increased by Rs50 within a week.” Imran Khan accused the coalition government of using the recent wave of terrorism to gain “political mileage” for their benefit. He claimed that terrorism was at its lowest-ever point during his government but resurfaced with a vengeance during the “current regime”. “Look at the graph of terrorism and how it came down during the PTI government,” he said. “Why wasn’t there any terrorism when PTI was in the federal government?” Imran pinned the responsibility of rising terrorism on incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as he recalled the sacrifices made by the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the war on terror. “This is why they (KP public) came out and thronged the streets in fear that there might be another operation,” he said, adding that countless innocent lives are lost during anti-terror operations.
The PTI chief added that “lies” were spewed by PM Shehbaz in the cabinet meeting over the weekend regarding KP not utilising the terrorism funding properly. “KP spent Rs600 billion in nine years. We made four police training schools, an elite training school in Nowshera, a special combat force to fight terrorism,” Imran said. “This is why terrorism subsided. A DNA lab was also made in 2017 at Khyber Medical College.” Commenting on the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, the ex-PM said only two provinces, Punjab and KP, followed through on the commitment and gave money for the uplift of tribal districts. Imran said Sindh and Balochistan did not provide any money. “We invested Rs55b for the tribal districts. The PDM government only gave Rs5b.”