Daily Times

Former prime minister Imran Khan announced on Friday that the party’s ‘Fill Prison Movement’ would commence from Lahore on February 22 (Wednesday).

“We will fill jails, they [authorities] will have no space left to hide,” he said while warning the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM) government during his address to the nation via video link from Lahore’s Zaman Park residence on Friday. “I am announcing, God willing, my ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ from Wednesday. I am telling my entire party today to prepare.”

He said that the movement would begin from Lahore before moving to other major cities in the country.

He called on the nation to leave behind fear and to not bow down before it. He thanked his supporters for gathering outside his Zaman Park residence in Lahore at a moment’s notice when rumours of his alleged arrest surface. “They are scaring us with jails [but] we will fill them all. They will not have any space left in their jails.”

Imran said he was sure that the incumbent coalition government was trying its best to delay elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the provincial assemblies have been dissolved. “We dissolved the assemblies keeping the Constitution in mind,” he said. “On the 91st day, the caretaker government will be illegal and they will be violating Article 6 of the Constitution.”

The former prime minister said wars and earthquakes don’t destroy a country but injustice does. He said the human rights were being violated during the past 10 months by targeting the political opponents, adding that party leaders Shahbaz Gill and Azam Swati had been subjected to torture in the jail. “Whatever was done with former federal minister Azam Swati shocked the entire nation,” he said and added an attempt was made to silence Fawad Chaudhary and Sheikh Rashid by arresting them.Imran Khan went on to say that cases were made against Arshad Sharif and then he was threatened, adding that the senior journalist was a mujahid who was standing on the right side but then he was martyred in Kenya.

The PTI chairman further said police didn’t even register an FIR of attempt on his life, adding that the JIT was deliberately sabotaged which revealed that the three people he was naming were involved in the assassination attempt. Mr Khan also announced that his party would launch their ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ from Wednesday, Feb 22, adding that they had completed their preparations and would start movement from Lahore before expanding it to other major cities of the country and fill the jails of the country to the maximum. “We are launching the movement for the public to overcome their fear of going to jail,” he said.