LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has that he would lead the party in case his party chairman was arrested.
While talking to the media here on Friday, the former Foreign Minister said that the PTI was the only party that respected the law and state institutions; “we have always respected the judiciary and would continue to do so in the future”.
Qureshi criticized police brutality and slammed the police for torturing to death PTI worker Ali Bilal. “The police attacked innocent people and women while the windows of dozens of cars were smashed with sticks,” he continued. “Our worker was tortured to death and the media recorded the police brutality. The postmortem report mentioned that Bilal was tortured.” He added that human rights were being violated.
“The world has taken notice of the injustice done to the party worker. Qureshi said the March 8 incident was the continuation of the brutal operation launched against the party on May 25. Our party worker was killed and ironically a case was registered against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and other party leaders.”
Referring to a case filed against him, he said that it was fabricated to target him; this was a response to the harsh words he made in his previous press conference. “It was a bogus case based on feeble facts,” he added.
He disclosed that the party workers have rushed to Zaman Park after hearing news about the arrest of Khan, adding that more party workers were on their way to protect their leader.
Meanwhile, as per the sources, the PTI decided to approach the presidents and member lawyers of all bars of the country ahead of its ‘save judiciary’ movement and senior members of the party would be given the task to visit the bars.
The PTI also decided to start phase-wise protests across all bars and PTI chief Imran Khan would address them; the members of the civil society would also be invited to participate in the movement. The party’s move comes in the wake of its claims that opposition political parties were running a smear campaign against the judiciary on social media.
Fearing the arrest of the PTI Chairman, the party also decided to bring more party workers from south Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to Zaman Park who would guard their leader day and night. At least 5,000 party workers would be present outside the Khan’s residence at one time. In case of arrest, the PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi would be empowered to take decisions for the party.
The party also approved the start of election rallies from next week while the party tickets for both provinces would be finalized in the next four to five days.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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