GUJRAT: More than 40 people, including former minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal and ex-lawmakers, belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) courted arrest in Gujranwala on Sunday whereas the “district leadership” of the party stayed away from jails, reportedly on the orders of the party high command.

On the fifth day of the PTI’s ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’, hundreds of party workers from seven districts of Gujranwala and Gujrat gathered at the residence of local leader Khalid Aziz Lone near the cricket stadium in the city.

In order to make the demonstration successful, convoys led by the respective party presidents reached the site of the protest from Gujranwala, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, Hafizabad, Wazirabad, and Narowal.

Nazar Gondal was the first to turn himself in by boarding a prison van followed by his nephew and ex-MPA Waseem Afzal Chan from Mandi Bahauddin. Zafar Cheema, Shujaat Nawaz Ajnala, and Zubair Tanda, Tahir Hundli, and Saeed Bhalli were among former lawmakers who gave up their freedom. The local leaders claim the arrest of 75 workers, but official sources said that at least “45 workers had been detained” by the police.

At least, four prison vans were brought to the site of the protest to arrest the PTI workers in light of the court arrest drive. After first batch of detained workers was bundled off, the vans did not come back to arrest other party supporters, a PTI activist said.

A party official told Dawn that PTI Central Punjab President Dr Yasmin Rashid had already directed the local office-bearers, particularly presidents and general secretaries, to refrain from arrests since the PTI would be needing them to mobilise the workers in the near future.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told media persons in Faisalabad that the government would imprison PTI members in far-flung jails before moving to incarcerate them in central jails in major cities of the country.

It may be noted that the PTI activists detained in Rawalpindi on Friday were moved to Hafizabad and Sargodha jails on Saturday. Similarly, PTI central leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi was moved to a jail in Attock whereas Senator Azam Swati was moved to the Bahawalpur jail.

On Thursday, Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, the steering head of the ‘court arrest movement’ of the PTI, filed a habeas corpus petition before the Lahore High Court challenging the arrests of its nine senior leaders.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2023