The Jail Bharo Movement (JBT) incepted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on February 22 is set to move to Rawalpindi today (Friday) after shows in Lahore and Peshawar.
Sources said the PTI leaders and activists will 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.
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.
Fawad sees PML-N senior leadership distancing from Maryam
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.