Fayaz Chauhan takes on the mantle for JBT Rawalpindi chapter

Fayaz Chauhan takes on the mantle for JBT Rawalpindi chapter

Pakistan

Police have not imposed section 144 in the city yet

RAWALPINDI (Dunya News) – As the Jail Bharo Movement (JBT) entered Rawalpindi, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fayaz-ul-Hassan Chauhan and other activists flocked to the Committee chowk on Friday to court arrests but the police had not arrested anyone yet.

Mr Chauhan said he sat in the prisoner van to honor the PTI chief Imran Khan's call for the movement. "I shall neither appraoch the court for bail nor my family will do so", he added. He would, he said, not appeal for the bail until Mr Khan directed so.

PTI activists were seen entering the prisoner van and posing for pictures with the van.

The Jail Bharo Movement (JBT) incepted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on February 22 moved to Rawalpindi today (Friday) after shows in Lahore and Peshawar.

Sources said the PTI leaders and activists would court arrests at Committee chowk and outside RA Bazar police station. “The Rawalpindi police had decided against arresting those surrendering voluntarily and they will arrest only those disturbing peace”, sources added. The police, sources said, would not transfer the prisoners to Adiala jail as it was stuffed with prisoners exceeding its capacity.

Nine police vans and twenty buses have been put on standby but section 144 has not yet been imposed in the city.

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Earlier, the fervently promoted "Jail Bharo" movement by the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had failed to register a significant impact on the incumbent government, owing to the lackadaisical attitude of PTI workers, resulting in no voluntary surrenders.

On the other hand, the police detained PTI vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi for 30 days in the Attock jail. Mr Qureshi was the first to have courted arrest on the movement’s first day in Lahore. Later, other leaders including Zubair Niazi, Asad Umar and Azam Swati sat in the prison van by themselves. Omar Sarfraz Cheema and others also surrendered themselves while Hammad Azhar sat atop a vehicle ostensibly to get a media glare.