Incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan will lead the upcoming anti-government protest from jail and has ordered his party leaders to intensify demonstration on August 5, the day that would mark two years of his incarceration, his sister said.
The jailed PTI patron-in-chief had directed that the party should begin its movement against the government after the 10th of Muharram, Aleema quoted his orders last week.
“Muharram 10 has passed […] the party will unveil its strategy now,” said Aleema while talking to journalists at Gorakhpur check post on Tuesday after she along with Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan met the ex-premier at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.
The PTI founder would lead the protest from jail, she claimed, and launched a criticism against the party leadership, quoting Khan as saying that he was free in prison while they are imprisoned outside.
“Our family knows about the protest plan,” said Aleema, however, she remained tight-lipped about the details of the upcoming demonstration. She added that they would inform the media regarding the plan at an appropriate time.
The protest route — whether it starts from Peshawar and proceeds to Lahore — will be decided and disclosed by the party, she added.
She also said that Khan’s entire family would participate in the upcoming protest. Khan had conveyed that those unable to carry the burden of the political movement should step aside, she added.
Reacting to the suspension of 26 PTI lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly, Aleema alleged that the suspension was made to “appease [Punjab Chief Minister] Maryam Nawaz.”
Khan’s another sister, Noreen Niazi, told reporters that he was in good health, but the jail authorities denied access of television, newspapers and reading material to the former premier for the past one week.
Aleema alleged that the PTI founder and his wife Bushra were kept in solitary confinement, adding that Khan has not been allowed to see his personal physician for 10 months.
She also blamed the Punjab chief minister for her involvement in imposing restrictive measures on ex-premier Khan in jail.
CM Gandapur to lead protest
Last week, PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram said his party first postponed the nationwide protests due to the Iran-Israel war, then it delayed it out of respect for Muharram days.
In the first phase, demonstrations would be held in provinces and districts, the PTI spokesperson said.
To a query, he said the party workers should not be exposed to live bullets. “When the first bullet was fired, the PTI founder won,” he said.
To another query pertaining to KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur’s statement that he would carry weapons to the protest, Akram said Gandapur was talking about self-defence. “What the chief minister meant was that everybody has the right to self-defence,” he added.
The PTI spokesperson also said the PTI founder had directed Gandapur to lead the protest.
