‘Rulers keeping PTI founder in jail because they are afraid’

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday staged multiple protests against incarceration of former prime minister and party founder Imran Khan.

One of the rallies was led by Sindh PTI President Haleem Adil Sheikh. Another rally was held outside the Karachi Press Club where party leader Khurrum Sher Zaman and others addressed the participants.

Sheikh said in his rally that Khan was fighting for the survival of Pakistan and had been unjustly imprisoned on false charges.

He urged the public to take to the streets and register their protests in support of the PTI founder. "The country is going through a very delicate phase," Sheikh remarked.

He asserted that holding peaceful protests was a constitutional right of every Pakistani, lamenting that the current government had sidelined the constitution and laws, effectively imposing a civilian dictatorship.

He also criticised the heavy police presence at the Insaf House in Karachi stating that police were deployed to arrest PTI workers. He said that on the one hand, the PTI was not allowed to hold gatherings but on the other hand, other parties were permitted to hold their programmes.

The Sindh PTI chief remarked that such double standards had been fostering public resentment.

Sheikh accused what he termed so-called democratic government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Sindh of depriving the people of their basic rights. He highlighted that the entire nation was witnessing that Khan had been politically victimised by the current government.

"As long as the judiciary in this country is not independent, justice will not prevail," he added, claiming that the rights of the people were being usurped.

Sindh PTI Additional General Secretary Rizwan Niazi said peaceful protests were being held nationwide for Khan's release. He maintained that the rulers were afraid of Khan because they knew that if he was freed, the entire nation would rally behind him.

Niazi claimed that the government would not last for a day if Khan was released. He said several PTI leaders, including Bushra Bibi, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Alia Hamza and Sanam Javed, had also been imprisoned on false charges.