SWABI: As its founder Imran Khan completed one year in jail, the PTI and its allies on Monday organised a large power show in Swabi to demand the former prime minister’s release.

The jalsa was held at Shahmansoor Town and PTI leaders and workers from across the country participated in the event, despite the hot weather. The PTI workers were waving party flags and holding Imran Khan’s portraits, demanding the government release their leader immediately.

In their speeches, PTI leaders said they had launched the campaign for the release of Imran Khan and they would organise rallies in different cities, including Islamabad and Lahore.

They asked the party supporters to be ready for upcoming gatherings in Islamabad, Lahore and other cities of Punjab to sustain the pressure on the federal government. According to the PTI leaders, the public gathering in Islamabad will be held in the last week of August or the first week of September.

“If we reduce the pressure, it will mean that we have lost the initiative for which we have given numerous sacrifices,” claimed PTI leader Asad Qaiser.

Barrister Gohar said they have launched the struggle for the release of their leader, who was imprisoned along with his wife Bushra Bibi in “false cases”. He alleged that the federal government used various tactics to tarnish Mr Khan’s image and popularity but the government could not break their momentum.

The PTI leader said that the judicial system should be independent so that the judiciary could deliver, adding that interference in judicial and political affairs must come to an end.

Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who heads the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party as well as a PTI-led opposition alliance, said that there was a need to restore the rule of law and constitutional supremacy in the country. He said that Imran Khan was right to say that there was a need for ‘real independence’ and they supported this idea of Mr Khan.

“We strive for the supremacy of parliament in the country…every institution should work in line with its constitutional role, and the people-elected government should deliver according to the wishes and benefits of the masses,” he said, adding that there was no space for “engineered” elections anymore.

Addressing the gathering, Omar Ayub said that he wanted to convey a message to the PTI workers from Imran Khan about the military.

Imran Khan has said that the PML-N was trying to create a gulf between the nation and the Pakistan Army but such an attempt would be foiled by the PTI leadership with complete determination, said Mr Ayub.

He added that the PTI leaders and workers had been picked up by intelligence agencies without any reason and PTI wanted that this practice should be stopped.

In his address, KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said Islamabad belonged to all provinces and no one could prevent them from holding a public gathering there. He called for the unconditional release of Imran Khan, saying he did not do anything wrong.

Anwar Iqbal adds from Wash­ington: In a separate protest, held a stone’s throw from the US Capitol, PTI supporters in the US called on Washington to reconsider its current stance towards Islamabad and back their efforts to restore democracy in Pakistan.

Speaking at the protest, former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri recalled that when PTI organised nationwide protests on August 5, 2019, against India, then-army chief retired Gen Qamar Bajwa had praised them. “Now we are called traitors simply because we demand our democratic rights,” he noted.

He expressed concern over the imprisonment of Imran Khan, Yasmin Rashid, and other PTI leaders on what he described as fabricated charges. Suri appealed to the US administration and international human rights organisations to demand their release.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2024