Let’s Go to Prison

Imran Khan and PTI have announced to launch the much-awaited ‘Jail Bharo Movement’ from Feb 22

LAHORE: Former Prime Minister and Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan has finally announced the commencement of the ‘Jail Bharo Movement’ from Wednesday, February 22nd to protest the government’s delaying tactics in holding of early elections in Punjab and the KP as well as to  witch-hunt and arrests of various PTI leaders and Sheikh Rasheed this month.

In a strong statement made by Imran Khan which is aimed at increasing the political temperature and upping the ante against what he termed as the government’s ‘dastardly tactics’ to crush him and his part’s morale, he called on his supporters to go for court arrests in great numbers to send out a courageous and strong message to the government and its allies.

“There will be no space left in prisons across the country as hundreds of thousands of our supporters will voluntarily offer court arrests,”said Imran.

However, skeptical about Imran’s head-on approach and strategies that have at times backfired in the past, the political and legal analysts are raising concerns about how this Jail Bharo Movement will be carried out by PTI and its leadership and what will it accomplish.

The other key question that arises is whether this strategy will be politically beneficial or harmful for Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

The analysts and legal experts have expressed concern that any such hasty action could result in exacerbating the “political turmoil” due to the country’s prevailing economic and governance crisis.

Prior to learning the solutions to these queries, it is critical to ascertain the facts about how the PTI plans to launch it.

When approached, senior PTI Senator Ijaz Chaudhry informed that prominent party members and legislative leaders would face jail time during the movement’s initial stages while in the second phase 500 party members from various provincial constituencies would surrender.

“Now we are demonstrating and the thought is that these arrests will continue, therefore it is better to surrender ourselves and fill up the prisons and show our solidarity,” said Ijaz when asked how this movement can help in winning the future elections. A PTI member asserted that the decision would be well received by the populace since they are tired of the foreign government that has made their lives miserable.

“Majority of the people are unable to feed their kids three times a day, the government is being cursed by them. This is a pathetic situation.”

But what do the party leaders think about this?

Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry said that ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ is part of the struggle to ensure the country comes onto the right path and gets rid of the corrupt people ruling it currently.

“We have two choices,” he said. “One, either we take the path of violence and the second is to surrender. So we have decided to surrender.”

He said that filling up the jails of Pakistan will paralyze the current system since a massive number of people will be turning themselves in voluntarily.

He said that first the PTI leaders will surrender before the police and then all the workers will start filling up the prisons.

He claimed that PTI workers had sought bail in hundreds of cases against them but they will withdraw them and surrender or they will offer to get arrested whereever Section 144 is enforced.

“In the first phase, ten thousand people will fill up various prisons in different constituencies and start a peaceful Jail Bharo Movement. Then the movement will catch on and more and more people will surrender.”

Commenting on the PTI’s strategy and the movement starting on Wednesday, a leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N said on condition of anonymity that the government will not detain any member or leader of Tehreek-e-Insaaf without any trial or arrest warrant.

In response to a question, he said that the party has not made any response strategy to Imran Khan’s announcement so far.

It should be noted that ‘Jail Bharo Movement’ has been an old tactic of political strategy in the subcontinent which was tried locally before the independence of Pakistan and India.

Third round of Imran Khan’s resistance:

After the success of the no-confidence motion in April 2022, PTI workers staged sit-ins across the country. Then the long march to Islamabad in May 2022 and November 2022 and during this time resignations from the assemblies were also given while the provincial assemblies were dissolved under the latest strategy.

Experts say that after the attack on Islamabad and the failure of the resignation movement from the assemblies, now there is an impression that ‘Imran Khan is under pressure at the moment.’

“People cannot be jailed without breaking the law,” pointed out senior lawyer Syed Imran Shah. “I do not understand how this movement will be implemented. People cannot be jailed without committing any offence, nor does the Jail Superintendent have this authority,” he said.

What does the law say on the ‘Jail Bharo Movement’: 

When asked as to what the law says about such a movement and how will the police arrest people without filing any cases against them, former judge Shah Khawar said that if the PTI supporters offering themselves for court arrests do not already have cases against them, then it will be necessary to have a cognizable offense to arrest them, otherwise the police just cannot detain them without any reason. He said that the legal point here is that there must be an FIR or a trial against a person for him or her to go to jail.

“Another point is that all the workers who were named in the case of arson during the long march must relinquish their bails so that the police can arrest them.”

The third option is that those people who have no cases against their name but want to voluntarily offer themselves for arrests, must be found guilty of violating Section 144 for the police to arrest them.

“One of its disadvantages can also be that if political leaders commit an ‘arrestable’ offense and after the arrest the court conducts a quick trial and punishes them, then they will be convicted and in that case, they will not be able to contest the elections. So that can be risky too for PTI,” added Khawar.

“If Imran Khan really wants to start this movement, he will have to return the bail from wherever he has secured it before his arrest.”

He said that if Tehreek-e-Insaf is serious about this movement, then their leadership should not submit their bail bond.

‘History of ‘Jail Bharo Movements’:

Several Jail Bharo Movements’ have been taking place in the sub-continent during the past.

Against the British, the Muslims had announced the Jail Bharo Movement, which included the names of major leaders of that time.

A similar movement was also carried forward by Gandhi and this movement was instrumental in ending the British rule from the subcontinent. There was no practical implementation but meetings were definitely held for this movement.

Khawar recalled that in 1977, the Nizam-e-Mustafa movement was started and a Jail Bharo Movement was announced on the sidelines to  implemented.

“In the political history of Pakistan, political parties always announce Jail Bharo Movements but it is only used as a political weapon to increase pressure on the sitting government. Even during the martial law period, Jail Bharo Movements were announced but fizzled out after a while.”

Khawar further said that Jail Bharo Movements are generally organized against dictatorship, like in August 1983 during the Ziaul Haq tenure when almost all political parties got united and started the movement.

“I am a witness myself. Section 13/33 of Martial Law Regulation was imposed at the time. If a rally or a procession was taken out or slogans were raised against the government, the police would arrest the violators. “Usually, these gatherings were held in Committee Chowk Rawalpindi.”