From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Former prime minister Imran Khan announced on Friday that the party’s ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ (court arrest drive) would commence from Lahore on February 22 (Wednesday).
Imran had announced the movement on February 5 after apparently running out of options to press the PML-N-led government to hold elections in two provinces — Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — and stop it from “political victimisation”.
In a televised address today, the PTI chairman said: “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.”
