PTI chief Imran on Wednesday said the ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ was initiated to “break the shackles of fear” and lauded the party’s leadership for “leading from the front”. “We had prepared [for] 200 people but thousands were ready to go to jail. I’m getting calls from Peshawar and Rawalpindi that thousands of people are ready to go to jail.” Imran thanked the people of Lahore for their participation. At the same time, he called on the nation to prepare, saying that if the Punjab and KP elections were delayed beyond 90 days then the “whole nation will have to come out [in protest]”.
In a series of tweets before the campaign commenced, Imran said: “Today we start our Jail Bharo campaign for Haqeeqi Azadi for two main reasons. “One, it is a peaceful, non-violent protest against the attack on our constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights. We are facing sham FIRs and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases, custodial torture, attacks on journalists and social media people.” Second, Imran went on, the drive was against economic meltdown “brought on by 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 spiralling inflation and rising unemployment”. PTI’s official Twitter account tweeted pictures and videos of party leaders including Asad Umar and Azam Swati converging at Lahore’s Charing Cross as the movement commenced from the Punjab capital.
