PTI to launch 'Jail Bharo' drive in Gujranwala today

• PTI members to present themselves for arrest in Gujranwala today, says Fawad.
• More than 200 workers in jail, PTI leader claims.
• Detainees refused to submit bail requests, claims PTI leader. 

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said on Sunday that the party leaders and workers will offer their arrests in Gujranwala today after Peshawar and Multan police refused to detain party members.

Taking on Twitter, Fawad wrote: "PTI leaders and workers will present themselves for arrests in Gujranwala today, Police in Peshawar and Multan refused to arrest Tehreek-e-Insaf workers."

The former information minister claimed : "More than two hundred workers in Lahore and Rawalpindi are currently in various jails and they have refused to submit bail requests."

The movement, according to the PTI rationale, aims to counter the "attack on constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights" and the "economic meltdown by the incumbent government".

The court arrest movement was launched on February 22 from Lahore. The party's senior leaders, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar and Azam Swati, alongside other party workers, voluntarily surrendered themselves to the Lahore police on the first day of the campaign — and later, some of the others followed suit. The movement subsequently reached Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Multan.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan had strongly condemned the "fascist approach" of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government for treating his party’s workers and leaders detained during the "Jail Bharo Tehreek" (court arrest drive) like terrorists.

Khan claimed in his Tweet that his party's leadership and workers are protesting against fascism, the violation of fundamental rights, and the crushing of the nation.

Pleas filed for recovery

Despite the "voluntary" arrests of leaders and workers, several pleas had been filed earlier this week in the Lahore High Court (LHC) for their release.

PTI Senator Ijaz Chaudhry filed pleas for the recovery of at least eight PTI leaders — Umar, Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, Waleed Iqbal, Senator Swati, Murad Ras, Jaan Madni, Azam Niazi, and Ahsan Dogar.

"The leaders are not even being provided medicines and food." The petition further said that the leaders are being kept in wrongful detention. "To defame and hurt them, fake cases can be made against them."

Chaudhry said that there was no reason to keep them behind bars and urged the court to direct police to produce the leaders before the LHC and not resort to any illegal steps.

In his petition, Zain Qureshi appealed to the LHC to order authorities to produce his father — the PTI vice chairman — who is being kept in wrongful detention.

"Shah Mahmood was taken into custody yesterday and I am not being informed about his whereabouts," Qureshi said