Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Friday that his opposition party would launch a voluntary arrest movement next week to protest the government’s “unconstitutional" refusal to hold key provincial elections and its purported “political victimization” of his aides and allies.
The planned agitation by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will likely deepen lingering political turmoil in the country. It also comes as incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration struggles to tackle a severe economic crisis.
“My ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ [fill the jail movement] will commence from Lahore on Wednesday and gradually we will take it to other major cities of the country,” Khan said in a nationally televised speech from that eastern city, the country’s second largest, on Friday.
The cricket-star-turned-politician has been recovering at his Lahore residence since being shot in the legs last November while leading an anti-government rally.
Khan, 70, came under attack in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital, and suffered multiple bullet injuries. He accuses the government of plotting to kill him.
The Pakistani opposition leader, who still enjoys popular support in the country, vowed Friday that he would personally court arrest once his bullet wounds heal.
Khan reiterated Friday his allegation of “political victimization,” saying the government had unleashed a crackdown on PTI officials and political allies, instituting fake cases against them, arresting them and torturing them in custody, charges government officials reject.
“[The government is] scaring us with jails, but we will fill them all and they will not have any space left in their jails,” Khan said.
Khan accused Sharif’s coalition government of using delaying tactics in violation of the constitution to avoid a test at the ballot. He has been pushing the country’s election commission to announce a date for new elections in Punjab and in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in line with its constitutional obligations.
The PTI dissolved its governments in both provinces more than a month ago. The constitution binds election authorities to hold new elections within 90 days after the dissolution of an assembly, be it national or provincial.
Khan has also been urging the incumbent government to dissolve the national assembly parliament and announce a snap election, saying only that will ensure political and economic stability in Pakistan. But Sharif has rejected the demand.
Last April, Sharif successfully led an opposition parliamentary vote of no confidence against Khan, removing him from power after nearly four years in office and toppling the PTI-led coalition government.
Sharif subsequently formed a new coalition government, and his term as prime minister ends in August. But the new administration has lately come under intense public criticism as it takes key measures such as raising natural gas, electricity and gasoline prices to try to secure the revival of a financial bailout package from the International Monterey Fund.
The IMF program is crucial for Pakistan to stave off a growing risk of default, provided the government meets the lender’s conditions. Sharif blames Khan, his predecessor, for violating the IMF terms while in office.
Inflation has risen to more than 35%, and the country’s foreign exchange reserves have depleted to around $3 billion, barely enough for three weeks of imports.
The IMF wants the government to remove energy subsidies and further raise energy prices to meet a revenue shortfall. Analysts say that will cause inflation to increase further, which will put more political pressure on Sharif and will help Khan’s anti-government campaign.
