Govt planning arrest of 700 PTI people: Fawad Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Senior Vice-President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said Monday he had come to know that some 700 PTI leaders and activists would be arrested to thwart the party plans to hold a march on Islamabad.

However, he insisted that the government would not be able to stop the tsunami of lakhs of people coming out of their homes for a ‘real independence’.

Speaking here at a news conference, he said PTI Chairman Imran Khan would lead a massive rally from Peshawar to Srinagar Highway in Islamabad and he would spell out the next strategy on June 3, whether the party would hold a jalsa (public meeting), a rally or something else. He added that the call for Islamabad march was for the people of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while others would come out and hold demonstrations in their respective cities.

He claimed that the PTI supporters were being intimidated and questioned at their homes, and the FIA had picked up several of their people, whose bails had been secured. 

The PTI leader said that under a conspiracy, the PTI government was ousted, and now under a strategy, large-scale arrests were going to be made to thwart the planned march. He came down hard on the government over its mis-governance and asserted that no time could be given to those who had played havoc with the national economy in their 40 days of rule.

He regretted that the foreign policy was so helpless and wondered how could this be called independence. Putting aside politics and government, he maintained the most important for them was to achieve what he called real independence. “People should have the right to decide on new government through their vote and this will restore Pakistan’s sovereignty and independence,” he contended.

The PTI leader said that if today they did not hold the independence march, there was a possibility our independence would be compromised forever. He claimed that revolution would take place in Karachi, where massive number of people would come out for their rights.

He charged that to prevent people from moving towards Islamabad, hundreds of containers had been transported at the Jehlum and Gujrat bridges. And, he continued, there was a plan to close River Chenab bridge. Likewise, large number of containers had reached Attock bridge.

Side by side, Fawad said that the media and social media workers were being subjected to registration of fake cases. He pointed out that Dr Shireen Mazari was taken into custody and fake cases were framed against her. He cautioned that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had declared in its verdict that the laid down procedure would have to be adopted with regard to the arrest of members of the assembly and public office holders; otherwise, it would be a contempt of court. Fawad said they would also express solidarity with the APHC leader Yasin Malik, who was in illegal custody of Indian authorities, as freedom of Kashmir was also a part of their march.