Fears that notorious intelligence agencies may harass senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders at undisclosed locations, ousted prime minister Imran KhanThe party on Thursday filed a petition in the court for the release of leaders who had offered their arrest under the Jan Adalat Arrest Movement a day earlier.
interim Punjab The government on Thursday confirmed that the police arrested 81 PTI activists, including former federal ministers Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar and Hammad Azhar, senators Azam Swati and Waleed Iqbal (grandsons of poet Allama Iqbal) and former Punjab governors Umar Sarfaraz Cheema. However, Khan’s party says that the police in Lahore have detained around 250 party workers.
Initially, all the arrested PTI supporters were shifted to Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, but later its leaders were shifted to an ‘undisclosed location’.
As neither the government nor the Punjab Police has confirmed the whereabouts of the detained leaders, the party and the families of the arrested leaders on Thursday filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking their “safe recovery/release”.
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Zain Qureshi, son of former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said that neither his father nor other leaders were produced in any court on Thursday, nor is the Punjab government and the police telling which jail they were taken to. Is.
The petitioners said that the lives of PTI leaders are at stake at the hands of the government and the police.
“If the detainees are not released from illegal and unlawful custody, they may suffer irreparable harm and injury,” he said and added that the arrested PTI leaders may be booked in false and frivolous cases so that they Maximum damage can be done.
The PTI leadership is concerned about the treatment meted out to the detained leaders.
Earlier, Senator Azam Swati had alleged that he was severely tortured by some senior ISI officers when he was in police custody.
PTI is anticipating a similar situation in the case of these arrested senior leaders as well.
A Punjab Police official said Qureshi has been shifted to Attock Jail while other senior leaders have been kept in various jails in Punjab.
Khan’s party launched a Jan Adalat arrest agitation from Lahore on Wednesday over what it called violation of fundamental rights, misuse of the constitution and economic slowdown.
According to the party, every day a few hundred PTI workers and leaders from different cities will appear for arrest.
Party workers and leaders appeared for arrest on Thursday in Peshawar. “A large number of Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders, workers and people left for the (Peshawar) Central Jail,” the party said.
A party leader said that the mass arrest movement will continue till the election date in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is not announced.
The PTI dissolved its governments in Punjab and Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces a month ago. Under the constitution, elections must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the assembly.
The nine-party government led by the PML-N has said that it is not possible to hold separate elections for provincial and national assemblies due to the economic crisis and the law and order situation.
Khan, who was ousted as prime minister in April last year after the National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion, has been demanding fresh general elections in Pakistan.
Khan has said that he has started the “Jail Bharo Tehreek” (Court Arrest Movement) for real freedom for two main reasons. “One, it is a peaceful, non-violent protest against the assault on our constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights. We are facing fake FIRs and National Accountability Bureau cases, custodial torture, attacks on journalists and social media.”
He said the campaign was against the economic slowdown “brought about by a gang of miscreants who have money laundering billions in looted money and have passed the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) for themselves while crushing the people, especially the poor and the middle class.” NRO) (deal). , under the burden of rising inflation and rising unemployment.”
Khan urged people to take to the streets to get “true freedom”.
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