MANSEHRA: Former lawmakers and workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf from Hazara division on Monday swore an oath to court arrest under the party’s Jail Bharo Tehreek.
PTI Senator Ijaz Chaudhry led the mass oath-taking during a function in the Baffa area here.
The participants declared that they would stand firm against the forces damaging the sanctity and supremacy of the country’s Constitution and would present them for arrest under the Jail Bharo Tehreek.
PTI divisional president and former MNA Salah Mohammad Khan had called former lawmakers and workers from eight districts of Hazara division to the event but only a handful of them, both men and women, showed up.
Besides Mr Salah, former speaker of the provincial assembly Mushtaq Ghani, former adviser to the chief minister Babar Saleem Swati and former minister Qalandar Lodhi also attended the event.
Senator Ijaz says party will force govt to announce PA poll dates
Mr Chaudhry said the PTI was a law-abiding political party, so it opted for a peaceful way to press the government for holding elections to the KP and Punjab assemblies and stopping political victimisation of its leaders and workers.
“We will never yield to the imported government’s undemocratic and unlawful tactics to delay elections in Punjab and KP,” he said.
On the occasion, Mr Ghani said the party’s leaders and workers in the Hazara division were ready to court arrest.
He criticised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration over “economic and political instability in the country and record inflation caused by it.”
TWO Killed: A truck fell into a ravine in Torghar district on Monday killing the driver and the cleaner.
The accident occurred as driver Mohammad Mudassir lost control of the truck, which was carrying granite boulders from Malian Banda to Kundar Hassanzai.
Also in the day, a female medical student was killed allegedly by an accidental fire in Hathi Mera area here.
The police handed over the body to the family after the doctors completed medico-legal formalities in the hospital.
HELD: The police arrested 32 drug peddlers and seized a large cache of narcotics during raids here.
The action came on the orders of district police officer Zahoor Babar Afridi, according to a news release issued by the police on Monday.
The police also revealed the arrest of 22 men wanted for heinous crimes and seized arms and immunisation in large quantities.
They said nine men were also taken into custody for harbouring proclaimed offenders.
Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2023