PTI demands release of Imran, Bushra in protest outside City Courts

The Sindh Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration outside the City Courts calling for immediate release of PTI founder and patron-in-chief Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.

A large number of PTI leaders, lawyers and party workers and supporters, including women, participated in the demonstration. Many protesters carried banners and chanted slogans in support of the detained leaders of the PTI, demanding immediate release of Khan and others.

Addressing the participants, Sindh PTI President Haleem Adil Sheikh said the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law had been dismantled in the country. He lamented that a government formed through the Form 47 was imposed through the rigged elections.

The PTI founder and his wife had been incarcerated in false cases, and denied justice, he said, adding that the presiding officer of a court went on leave when it was time to deliver the justice. He alleged that a conspiracy had been hatched to deny Khan and his wife justice and due process of the law.

Sheikh said that after the 26th Constitutional Amendment, the judiciary had been weakened, and the future of young lawyers was at risk. He said the PTI founder was fighting for the real freedom of our children’s future. Khan could have walked free through a deal, but he chose imprisonment for the sake of the nation, Sheikh remarked.

He said the country could not move forward without the PTI founder’s release and the movement for his release would continue. Commenting on the economic conditions, he said there was a complete chaos across the country, and the poor had been deprived of even two meals a day. He declared the federal budget to be anti-people.

Sindh PTI General Secretary Dr Masroor Siyal said the protest was also for the independence of the judiciary. Karachi PTI President Raja Azhar emphasised that the PTI’s struggle was for Khan’s release and the supremacy of the Constitution and law. He said the party had a constitutional right to conduct a peaceful protest, but police were trying to portray them as terrorists.

He also criticised the Punjab chief minister for keeping an elderly woman leader of the PTI, Yasmeen Rashid, in prison. Other leaders of the PTI also addressed the protest.