Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the political party of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, on Wednesday made good on its threat to overload the country’s law enforcement system by defying protest bans in huge numbers and daring the police to arrest them.
The protest, known as “Jail Bharo Tehreek” or “Fill the Jails,” began in Lahore with hundreds of Khan supporters filling the commercial district in defiance of laws against disruptive protests. The police initially refused to arrest them, even when a squad of enthusiastic PTI members climbed into a police van and loudly demanded to be taken into custody. Another group constructed a mock jail on the side of the road and chained themselves inside it.
The protesters kept pushing, and eventually at least 60 of them were arrested, including six party leaders.
“This movement will continue until the imported government puts an end to the lawlessness in the country,” said former PTI federal minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi from the back of a police van.
“This so-called jail bharo campaign by Imran Khan is just a political stunt and nothing else,” growled Information Minister Marriyumn Aurangazeb. “He should voluntarily offer his arrest instead of asking his supporters to fill the jails.”
Aurangazeb was taunting Khan for cowardice because he secured a protective bail order from a court in Lahore on Monday, effectively immunizing himself against arrest for two weeks. The former prime minister is facing several criminal charges, including terrorism, all of which he dismisses as crude efforts by the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to sabotage his political comeback.
Provincial information minister Amir Mir also suggested Khan turn himself in, rather than sending his followers to get arrested in his place, but added that PTI demonstrators were mistaken if they thought imprisoning them all was impossible.
“We don’t have enough space in Lahore jails, so we have decided to send them to Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan jails in the province. We have enough space there,” said Mir.
Khan was ejected from office in April 2022 before finishing his term, as is traditional for Pakistani prime ministers, although he was the first to get tossed out with a vote of no-confidence in Parliament. He claims his ouster was a plot orchestrated by the U.S. State Department.
Khan did not appear at Wednesday’s protest rallies and he unsuccessfully attempted to avoid appearing at his Monday bail hearing, citing poor health as he recovers from an assassination attempt in November.
Khan took to Twitter to assure the public that his political movement will “take you to a free and happy Pakistan” where “the state protects your fundamental rights.”
“We are facing sham FIRs and NAB cases, custodial torture, attacks on journalists and social media people,” he claimed. FIR and NAB are types of police complaints in Pakistan.
Khan said his “Fill the Jails” protest is against “the economic meltdown brought on by a cabal of crooks who have money-laundered billions in looted wealth and gotten NROs for themselves while crushing the people, especially the poor and middle class, under the burden of spiraling inflation and rising unemployment.”
NRO means National Reconciliation Ordinance, a somewhat obscure term dating back to the reign of military strongman Pervez Musharraf in the 2000s. An NRO is essentially a grant of amnesty to politicians accused of corruption. Musharraf handed out about 8,000 of them in the fading days of his reign, but the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled the ordinances unconstitutional in 2009.
“There seems to be no rule of law in the country as despite the court’s order to hold the polls in Punjab within 90 days the state institutions are not ready to comply with it. If the elections are not held within 90 days in two provinces, it will create a constitutional crisis and promote jungle law in the country,” Khan said, referring to his effort to force snap elections he is confident he would win.
Khan supporters formed a protective barrier around his house in Lahore last week and threatened to launch a “Fill the Jails” campaign if any move was made to arrest him. Khan claims he is prepared